The Valkyrior
by Heather Sinclair
Summary: Post-Worm/Pre-Thor-MCU. After her death, Taylor is brought to Valhalla and later in front of Odin for a very specific purpose. Shutter your windows and grab your bug spray Marvel Cinematic Universe, there's a new valkyrie in town. Taylor's got her bugs back and she's not afraid to use them.
1. Asgard

_Disclaimer: Thor &amp; the MCU are owned by Disney/Marvel. Worm is owned by Wildbow. _

_Intro_

_I shouldn't be here_.

A single day amongst the largest collection of heroes I'd never even heard of.

They'd left me alone for the most part at a small collection of tables with a large hunk of some sort of meat, boiled potatoes, and a giant mug of honey mead. Birger, the self-appointed receptionist, told me two things upon my arrival: eat as much as I want and drink as much as I want, that and everyone would give me a little time to acclimate before descending upon me wanting to know how I got there.

Apparently, the only form of entertainment was telling war stories. I had no desire to take part in the other two forms: wrestling and feats of strength. Vikings were a really weird bunch.

Not to say that was all that was here, but they took up the vast majority. There were others, actual capes, but none that I recognized. They mostly kept to themselves in the corner farthest away from me. I figured it was for the best. If they recognized me, then things might get a little dicey.

That was the thing though. I wasn't wearing anything that could give me away, just a pair of jeans, and a gray hoodie. I don't remember the last time I was out of costume, and those times were usually because I was asleep.

The mead was thick and sweet, and the light alcoholic buzz in my head was near constant. Normally, I wouldn't even think about getting drunk, but seriously, after what I'd been through for the last few years, I figured I was due – below drinking age or not. At least I was considered an adult now.

Happy birthday, the Apocalypse is here; I hope you didn't have anything planned.

"It's time," a familiar male voice said from my left.

I jerked in response. I don't remember the last time someone had the ability to sneak up on me. I'd gotten so used to having my bugs scouting every square inch of the area, nobody had the chance, but at the moment I was powerless.

Thanks, Contessa – bitch.

Birger stood there for a moment and then took a seat at the bench cattycorner to me.

"Time for what?" I asked warily.

"Your story. How you managed to arrive in Valhalla. Not many women of your… build can accomplish the feat. This should make a grand tale for the evening feast."

Build, right.

I managed five-eleven before taking two to the back of the head there at the end, but I was still skinny, or maybe lean would be a better word. Years of constant training and battles gave me a decent amount of muscle, but it wasn't anything like some of the musclebound women present. Shield Maidens if I had to hazard a guess.

"Killed a lot of people, saved the world," I said dismissively. "I honestly don't know how I got here."

He nodded and let a grim smile fade away before tossing his head back, flinging long wavy red hair behind his shoulder. "Brunnhilde brought you herself."

That name meant something to me, as if it was hidden in the recesses of my brain peeking its head out and waving slightly. It was a Norse name, obviously, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary considering where I was. I could make the connections though: Valhalla, two to the head, lots of Vikings… or maybe Asgardians.

"A valkyrie brought me?"

"Not just any valkyrie," he answered. "The leader of the Valkyrior herself, Odin's first chosen. It takes a special type of warrior to draw her attention outside of battle. So… your tale."

This wasn't something I was particularly interested in relating. While I didn't recognize any of the more modern inhabitants of the place, I wasn't exactly memorizing all the faces and costumes while I was snatching people across the numerous worlds and throwing them at Scion. Some of them might very well take exception of me being in a place meant for the honored dead. I knew the concept of where I was; I also knew that it didn't really mean anything to me in the grand scheme of things.

Valhalla was supposedly in Asgard, part of the nine realms, supposedly in a different dimension from Earth's. The honored dead resided there until Asgard's own apocalypse, Ragnarök, came about. At that point they would be released for the final battle… or something along those lines. I wasn't exactly an expert on the subject, but I did run across the topic during my studies.

Who knew my GED would actually come in useful for once?

"No thanks," I started to say, but the main door opened, cutting me off halfway through the denial.

An extremely tall blonde woman took two steps inside and her attention was immediately on me. Piecemeal silver armor faded away around her into a blue lightshow that dissipated as fast as her protection. What could only be called leather britches and some kind of jerkin was all that was left, but she still held onto a very large and lethal looking ornate spear resting in her grip at her side.

"Taylor Hebert of Earth Bet," she announced to everyone. "The All-Father commands your presence."

Birger turned back to me. "Well, you don't see that all too often. Off you go, Taylor Hebert. It's best not to keep Odin waiting."

_**Story Arc 1: Asgard**_

_1.1_

When I approached Brunnhilda she set the end of the spear she was holding on the floor and gestured with the shaft toward me. I ignored it for a few seconds in lieu of the person that would be escorting me. Most women I've come to know on Earth Bet were shorter than I was, so it was somewhat novel to see that she had me by at least two inches if not more due to her boots. Corn silk blonde hair reached just past the small of her back with two thick braids and numerous smaller ones on either side of her face. Other than that, Brunnhilda was like most of the more muscular woman I know. It definitely wasn't a bad look for her and I was annoyed to realize my old insecurities were alive and well in the afterlife.

"Take hold of Geirr and do not relinquish it until you are given leave."

The thing had to be at least seven feet tall. I measured its length and noted the material it was made of could have been poorly wrought iron, if they had that sort of thing here. I couldn't take anything for granted on a different world, and there was no doubt as to what this place had to be if it was indeed Valhalla.

"Is there a reason you're giving me your weapon?" I asked.

I had the feeling that she wasn't used to being questioned all that often when she gave orders – working alongside the PRT for so long I definitely recognized the type. Then I remembered Birger saying that she was the head Valkyrie which was something probably akin to general I would presume.

"Outside the halls of Valhalla, were you not possessing Geirr or at the very least in physical contact with a valkyrie, you would succumb to the mortal wounds that brought you to my notice."

That took me back to wherever it was Contessa and I had our little chat and she decided to assassinate me. All I remembered was dropping boneless to the ground there and the next thing I knew I was walking through the door here.

"So, in here I'm healed," I concluded, "and out there I have two bullet holes in my head."

Brunnhilda pressed her lips together before answering. "Unless you are fluent in how the process is accomplished through magic and science, it is difficult to explain. Simply trust that it will work as I have said. I have no desire to feel the wrath of the Allfather if I fail to deliver you on time as commanded."

That seemed to end that conversation. I took hold of the spear and waited for something magical to happen, only to be sorely disappointed.

So much for magic.

"Come," Brunnhilda said before turning and striding out the door. "We will converse along the way."

Any seven foot spear, made of some weird metal, should have weighed a lot more than I was expecting, but the thing was as light as the proverbial feather as I made sure not to scrape the doorway on as I followed. Apparently Valhalla was in the middle of a large grassy plane and civilization of any type was nowhere within eyesight. However, within seconds I noticed something was off about the whole scene.

It was all too perfect: the temperature, the slightest hint of a breeze, the total lack of pollen in the air even though it seemed like spring was in full bloom. It didn't feel natural.

"Where are we?" I said before clarifying myself. "I mean what is this place?"

She turned her head slightly and sent a measured eye on me. "Valhalla is a place out of natural space and time. Here, even the most dire wound will be given time to heal naturally. Once Ragnarök comes, all the valiant heroes within will be tasked to take part in the final battle. Consider this a way station between then and now."

That explanation obviously set me off. "Even against our will?"

Brunnhilda didn't take the bait. "Everyone here has been given the choice of staying or moving on to whatever afterlife awaits them."

"I didn't get the memo."

That confused her, but she let it roll off her broad shoulders. "You were brought here for a specific purpose, Taylor Hebert, and you will soon be given your choice."

I surveyed the area ahead and even took the time to throw a look over my shoulder to see how far we'd gone already. A day without my bugs gave new meaning to the word paranoid in my vocabulary.

"And that is…?"

My question was ignored; instead, she asked one of her own. "Why did you make use of your expanded powers at the end?"

Ah, that.

"Why do you want to know?"

"If you want an answer to your question then you will answer mine as well."

I rolled my eyes and pressed on. Obviously this was going to be a _quid pro_ _quo_ sort of conversation. I could deal with that.

"The short answer is that, in the end it was every man for himself, and there was no way we could have won against Scion unless we all came together… everyone."

Brunnhilda gave a single nod in return. "Mortals are capable of reason. Why did you choose to take away their free will and enslaving them instead of turning them to your side with reason?"

I sighed and concentrated on the low thumping sound I was making with the spear each time I took another step.

"If I'd taken the time then billions of people, trillions, would have been dead while we sat there arguing over whose plan was better."

"So you understand what it truly means to be a leader of warriors."

My brow furrowed when I looked her way. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She shrugged. "Only that there is a larger purpose out there amongst the nine realms and the multiple variances thereof. Most mortals can't comprehend that there is something larger than themselves, a reason that life must endure, even if it is at the cost of their own or many others they call enemy and friend."

Right – whatever.

"I did what needed doing," I clarified. "Whatever I get called in the end, it doesn't matter, because my world still lives."

"And the greater universe?"

"What's your point?"

We continued on a few more steps before Brunnhilda stopped and turned to me. "The entities that invaded your world are not the only threats out there, Taylor."

I felt my muscles tighten up with dread. "There's more of them?"

"Most certainly; they are not an immediate concern to us at the moment. If they approach, the Allfather will deal with them."

One guy would "deal" with the entities. That sounded unlikely. Granted, it was Odin we were talking about here, but still. She made it sound like he'd just wave his hand and they'd shrivel up and die. We definitely could have used that sort of help a few days ago. An actual god would have really been useful.

"Why are you asking about all of this? Am I being judged or something?"

She gestured and we continued on. "Not in the manner you are most likely thinking. We aren't the final adjudicators in terms of the disposition of your soul. You are not technically dead, so there is no need."

"Technically," I said as I pondered the various differences of deadness.

"You are being judged regarding your worthiness for a different sort of position."

This whole mess fell into place with that statement. I was being recruited. Considering the job qualifications and my previous experience that we'd been going over, this didn't sound like something I'd particularly be interested in. Not to mention I wasn't qualified for much of anything at the moment, since I had no way of interacting with my bugs.

"I don't have powers anymore."

Brunnhilda wasn't the least bit surprised. "Although your talents in that area would be useful in the coming years, it's your character of which I am most interested."

This was starting to become tedious. I didn't exactly want to die, but I did my part in saving the universe, or at least my little part of it anyway. It was time for a vacation and if that meant I wasn't being pulled around by someone that obviously can't lay the problem on the table and wait for a yes or a no, then I had better things to do.

"This is the second time I'm asking: can you get to the point? I really dislike word games."

She shook her head. "This isn't a game, Taylor."

"Fine," I shot back. "You clearly brought me here for a reason. You know I'll do whatever it takes to get the job done, even if it winds up pissing off everyone in charge. I'm pretty much worthless without my power, or at least nothing more than a tactician, but if you're actually a valkyrie from legend then you could probably run circles around me in that area. So what's the point of having me here and grilling me?"

Brunnhilda had stopped and spun around midway during my rant, watching me.

"You're doing well so far; continue."

I scowled at her and defiantly planted the spear an inch into the ground while I thought about it. If this was the real Asgard, Valhalla, and so forth then they had more than enough people to take care of any problems. They didn't need a broken cape from Earth Bet to tell them anything they didn't already know, so it had to be something personal about me. What was I being recruited for?

I didn't have enough information to make a decent guess, so I didn't bother.

"Not enough information," I said. "I'm not speculating any further."

She actually smiled at my answer. It was small, but it was there nonetheless.

"The Valkyrior has lost one of our own recently and the Allfather has seen a turbulent future for Asgard in the near future. The ranks must be filled."

I blinked at that. "The Valkyrior…."

"Valkyries, Taylor, those who carry warriors that will die honorably in battle to Valhalla; that is our primary duty. However, a millennium ago we were ordered to restrict Asgardian contact with Midgard, what you call Earth. At that time our duties increased. We are the Allfather's finest warriors save for a select few that lead his armies into battle: Sif, Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg, and of course the Odinson, Thor."

My mind skirted on the edge of going completely blank. "What does…?"

"What does this have to do with you?" she said, cutting me off. "Special missions from the Allfather require special warriors to carry them out. The Valkyrior are those warriors, and we are one short."

I'm not exactly sure when my mouth slid open – at least I wasn't gaping like an idiot.

"Right." I spun around and started heading back to the Hall. "Good luck with that."

"Taylor Hebert. You have been chosen."

"Don't know anything about being a warrior, much less swinging a sword around or throwing a spear. Thanks anyway."

I probably got about ten feet before Brunnhilda was suddenly in front of me with her fists balled up on her hips, striking an impressive figure.

"Your power will be returned to you."

Of course, she would know the one thing that would make me pause, which I did. Being virtually helpless for a day was driving me crazy. What would it be like in a week or a month, or even a year down the line? Would I grow used to it or would the paranoia drive me insane in due time?

"Did I not say that if you were in Valhalla long enough that you would be healed eventually? I didn't just mean physically. Though it will take years to fully regain such a talent, it _will _happen." Then she answered the unasked question. "The Allfather has the means to return you to your previous glory. All you need do is pledge yourself to the Valkyrior and to the king of Asgard."

I closed my eyes and rubbed at where the holes on my forehead should be before whispering, "Fucking Asgardians."

"Why me? You probably have hundreds of better people that actually want the position." I asked.

"You would be correct." She stared at me for a few moments and pressed her lips together. I was coming to the conclusion that was her go-to expression for annoyance. "As I mentioned, Asgardian presence on Midgard has been restricted…."

"Ah!" I figured her out. "I'm not Asgardian and you need someone on Earth for something."

"Correct."

Excitement almost made its way back to me. Then I actually thought about it some more. "Is this my Earth?"

"No. Heimdall, the keeper of the Bifrost, has witnessed two of what you would call Parahumans on Earth at this time, but their powers were acquired solely though science. You would be more than equal to their ranks, though you would have more advantages as a valkyrie. This is as much as I can say unless you choose to join us."

I blew out a breath and thought it over. I'd be on Earth and not really under the thumb of these guys, but eventually whatever mission I went on would end. Then I'd be screwed.

"No offense, but I don't know any of you. I can't honestly swear allegiance to Odin or you like that, even if you're tempting me with my power."

"Understood. The position is not permanent. If you accept and complete the mission and then realize you can't commit any further, you will be released from duty. We want loyal warriors, Taylor, not reluctant fighters."

I could deal with that. Even if it winds up being something I'd normally rail against, it might be worth it in the end. "One question: will whatever I'm going to do hurt innocents on Earth?"

She nodded, probably seeing where I was going. "Just the opposite. We'll likely save billions of lives, possibly the entire planet and the nine realms as well."

Oh… fuck. No pressure or anything. And here I thought I would never accomplish a ten-thousandth of what I did before.

"Fine. Let go see the wizard."

"The Allfather," she corrected.

_1.2_

"I was resigned to another, boring evening's repast." I flinched at the smooth male voice belonging to the person who snuck up from behind me. He smiled, probably knowing that he'd already gotten under my skin. I was so familiar with the type. "Then Hilda appears with sight unseen in these oh so hallowed halls."

Green and black, trimmed with gold went well with his pale complexion and dark hair. He had me by at least three inches and his regal bearing made me want to crawl away somewhere and hide, at least until I could find something to wear that would fit in better amongst those that I've already passed on the way to the Hall of Asgard. Brunnhilda was speaking to the King while I waited in the very back.

It was times like these that strengthened my resolve to get my powers back, if for no other reason than to never get snuck up on again. At least I recovered quickly enough.

"Sight unseen?" I asked.

He nodded lightly and I watched as his attention drifted to Odin. "My father would sooner blind his other eye than to allow a mortal free reign within."

"Well, I'm not exactly free… reigning." Dear God, Mom would have been so disappointed with my ability to speak, or rather my lack of ability in this particular instance. "Hold on. You said father."

A smile accompanied his nod, along with a hand held to his heart and a slight bow in succession. "I am Loki, Prince and son to the Allfather, and judging by the spear you wield, are late of Valhalla, I presume?"

My degree of nervousness increased tenfold. "Uh… yeah. Today… just the one day."

I had to stop and grit my teeth before appearing even more like an uneducated idiot.

"My name is Taylor Hebert of Earth Bet. Brunnhilda brought me to Valhalla just this morning."

There; success; a complete sentence! Two even!

His brow furrowed and I watched transfixed as he cocked his head in curiosity. "Earth… Bet. I am familiar with hundreds of planets, and a thousand civilizations, none of which is the purview of the valkyries. No, they alone travel the Nine Realms in their duties, one of which is Midgard otherwise known by its inhabitants as Earth."

When I just stood there contemplating the part where he said, "thousands of civilizations," and the implications thereof, Loki had to prompt me once again.

"Shall I alert the scribes that a new edit is fast approaching? I dare say that they should all be flustered at the thought."

"Alternate dimension," I clarified. "An alternate Earth."

Finally, I seemed to have taken him off guard. His eyes widened only a fraction, and it was more surprise than disbelief, so he had to be aware of the concept.

"Why would…?" he started before a resounding thump cut him off and both our attentions were brought to the throne. "Ah, another time. My father often maintains business before pleasure. I look forward to continuing our conversation, Taylor Hebert."

Not me. Definitely not me. While I could appreciate the intellectual conversation, not to demean the eye candy, I really didn't like to feel so out of place. Loki was a prince, or possibly a god, or maybe a demi-god, and I was… well, I was _me_."

"It was a pleasure meeting you, L… Prince Loki."

Quickly, I made my way across the length of the giant hall, eventually to the side of my soon-to-be boss.

The ceremonial armor Odin was wearing made judging his actual size problematic. He was big, and the spear he held beside his throne even bigger. He cocked a measuring eye at me and even went so far as to raise a brow before shifting his attention to Brunnhilda.

"Do we not have something more formidable, Hilda? We risk much imposing our presence on Midgard without just cause."

Was I just insulted? I think I was. Fucker. "Hey, I…."

"Taylor," Brunnhilda said, stopping me before I wound up killing myself at the end of Odin's spear, most likely. "I do not choose this mortal lightly, my King. Her actions speak for themselves, not to mention her tenacity. Her power is ideal for this mission."

He leaned forward and stroked his close-cropped white beard while I wondered how his eyepatch wasn't falling off since there wasn't anything obvious holding it on. I highly doubted they used super-glue on Asgard.

"Very well. I accept the terms," he said to her before turning his full attention to me. "Heed me well, mortal woman. Times like these rarely occur. Twice my father, Bor, brought mortals from Midgard into Asgard, granted them power beyond their imagination, a station amongst the warrior-elite, and twice he had them beheaded on the battlefield soon thereafter for their incompetence."

I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry.

"My valkyrie has confidence in your skills that you have proven on your homeworld; I do not. However, this mission will be your testing ground – a quest if you will. You will be granted a temporary commission amongst the Valkyrior and all that entails. Your body will be mended and your power will last only as long as the mission. When… _if _you return from Midgard successful, you will be granted a permanent position if, that is your wish."

Well at least he was straight forward and didn't jerk me around. I could respect that for what it was. At least until I got my bugs back.

I won't go into the experience of having my arm regrown or even the feeling of two white hot spikes being driven into my head from where Contessa shot me. I will however expound on what it was like for my passenger to reawaken and its being bound to me.

Even with Bonesaw's villain monologue on her thoughts regarding the shards in every parahuman's brain, and including Lisa's numerous theories on the topic, I didn't really think of it as an intelligent being. What I mean by that is I thought of it more as a living component of a greater whole, working in concert with me to do… something. As to what, I still wasn't all that clear on. People threw their thoughts on the subject at me, but in the end it wasn't really all that important, save for the destruction of Scion. By then I was all but dead anyway, so it didn't matter.

When Odin did his thing, I actually felt when it reawakened.

It wasn't what I would call intelligent. Maybe it was right at the cusp of being so or maybe it was me projecting my hopes and fears on the thing, but I could have sworn, as Odin's power coursed through my body, that I felt the slightest tinges of fear.

Like I said, it could have been my own. It probably was. Most likely.

Whatever it was that I felt was immediately quashed, imprisoned in my mind, or possibly my brain. That was something I was sure of – don't ask me how. All I know is, seconds after it happened, the world came alive around me once more and a cruel smile rose on my face at the thought. With my head bowed at the knee of Odin and his massive hand resting on the crown, nobody would have seen, but I knew it for what it was.

Weaver and her goals of defeating Jack Slash and Scion afterward were gone. This was more akin to the feeling I had after I had defeated Lung and carved out his eyes for the protection of those that would come afterward and haul his fiery dragon ass away to the Birdcage. It was triumph – facing the unbeatable foe and coming out on top once more.

People doubted me so many times: Lung, the Nine, the Protectorate, Tagg, Alexandria, all of them. They doubted the abilities of the bug girl, Skitter.

When the pain eased away I took a cleansing breath and pushed that part of me down, the desperate part that would do almost anything to insure victory at all cost. She wasn't who I was anymore. Mere months she was alive before Weaver took her place. Khepri was closer to what I truly was even more than my second guise – Skitter returned with what amounted to godlike power, but she was dead too. What stood here before the throne of Odin was something altogether different.

My passenger didn't define me anymore; I defined it.

~O~

"Taylor," Brunnhilda almost scolded me. "What are you doing?"

We had been given access to the Palace Armory for the valkyrie's tools of trade. Odin wouldn't even think of having anything made specifically for me until I'd proven myself in his eyes. Not that it was my primary goal or anything. I was fully alive once again, more than I was even when I was on Earth Bet. All of my ills were cured: old fractures, torn ligaments, my lingering issue with the concussion that Amy had gifted me with at the bank job. I felt new, fresh off the conveyer belt, on the showroom floor new. Most of all was my connection to the alien bugs around Asgard.

"Sorry. It's all the new species. We didn't have anything like this on my world. There's… so much and they're going to be so useful."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "None of which you can take with you to Midgard. Introducing them to that environment could be dangerous to the extreme."

I was about to protest, but the rational part of my brain chose that point to see what she was talking about. "Damn."

"Well, I'm making a costume out of the spider silk anyway. It feels stronger than even the Darwins on Earth."

"What…," she stopped and looked around, "kind of spider?"

I called out the mated pair I'd found in one of the unused alcoves. They came skittering across the floor unafraid of anything. I was fascinated at the seven extra limbs that were solely devoted to web manipulation and the multiple venom sacs with varying degrees of poison inside. The body was a good four inches long and an inch or two wide. The things I could have done with a few hundred of these in Brockton Bay.

Brunnhilda took two steps back and watched as the spiders raced to me, crawling up my legs to my waiting hands. They scurried up my arms to my shoulder, one on each turning to face my new boss.

"Aren't they beautiful?"

I actually heard her swallow harshly. "You have total control of those… creatures?"

I nodded and reached up to run a finger along the strange exoskeleton. I bet with their speed and this armor they were really hard to kill.

"Oh, yeah. No problem. Even in my sleep or if I was knocked unconscious, they'll defend me or keep on with whatever their last command was that I gave them."

She nodded in understanding while she kept a good distance away from me. In a very measured voice she asked, "Are there anymore on the palace grounds?"

I thought about it for a few seconds. "I don't think so, but I'm still processing all the new life. It's a little overwhelming, but it shouldn't take too much longer."

That information seemed to ease her mind. "When you are finished with them I would suggest you cage them or kill them, and do not ever bring them into the presence of the Allfather."

I realized then that I was back in creepy-mode for the average person that couldn't truly appreciate what these bugs could accomplish with the proper guidance – or maybe that was exactly what she was afraid of. Heh.

~O~

"I don't really need all of this," I complained at the full outfit of tightfitting armor and giant spear. "They don't exactly wear armor like this on Earth."

While it wasn't full plate mail, the stuff was still fairly heavy. Most of it was some kind of composite fiber that I'd never seen before, obviously. The rest was made from the same stuff of which Brunnhilda's spear was comprised. The outsides of my legs, knee, forearms, shoulders and breasts were plated up. I could move well enough, and the really hard stuff didn't get in the way. I suppose it was specifically made that way to protect the places more apt to get hit in a swordfight. Still, it was a little much.

"The is the armor every valkyrie wears. Once we chose a sword for you, it can be dispelled at your leisure and recalled whenever needed," she answered as she was looking over a vast amount of weapons.

"Dispelled? You mean it wasn't my imagination that you were wearing something like this when you came to get me in Valhalla?"

"You will find the sword of an Asgardian is more than a sharp form of metal with a handle, Taylor. It is a true weapon and utility of ours. With it we can change from casual clothing to battle armor with but a thought channeled into the sword. We can absorb energy and physical blasts from the enemy and return our own, and certain weapons are enchanted to do much more."

Well, that made a lot more sense than some advanced alien race relying on ancient blades to fight with.

"Here, this one," she said while taking a sword from rack with a dozen identical ones alongside. "Grasp it with your hand and hold it up to your breastplate like this."

It was a kind of salute, which I performed for her. "What did that do?"

"Until your mission is over that sword is yours, attuned to that armor. Now wave it downward in front of you and think about dispelling your armor."

Which I also did. Everything from the winged helm to the armor covering portions of my boots glowed blue and faded away until the base clothes I wore underneath was all that remained.

"I could have used this years ago," I murmured.

"Now hold the sword out to your side and dispel it in the same manner."

Oh, excellent! I get to do the disappearing sword trick!

In another moment it was gone and without her urging I did the same trick to the spear I was issued. All gone… uh.

"Where did everything go?"

Brunnhilda gestured to the door and explained as my two spiders ran to catch up.

"Some call it the Heavenly Realm, while others explain it as a pocket dimension. I personally care not, as long as they are always returned to me in the condition in which they left my presence."

I nodded and was pretty much of the same mind. I really don't think I'd need any of it in the first place once I had my new costume made. Speaking of which.

"Can I store other things there? Like supplies and…."

"No."

"But…."

"No."

"Bugs."

She glanced down at me. "You will not take any Asgardian bugs with you to Midgard, Taylor."

"No, I mean when I get there. I could build a swarm, store them away, and it would be a lot less noticeable to the civilians there. I could…."

"No. Only the items made specifically for a valkyrie's use can be attuned to the Heavenly Realm."

"Damn." I thought about that for a few moments. "How, uh… do they attune items like that?"

Her brow furrowed. "Ask someone more fluent in Runelore than myself. I know only those that are pertinent to my duty."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Well, obviously Asgardians live long lives. Why not learn more things that might be useful under unusual conditions." It was me that cut her off this time, before she could counter my idea. "When I first started as a cape, people constantly underestimated me. I was the bug-girl – the one with the creepy useless power.

"So I thought of ways to use it to my advantage. The spider-silk armor, using my bugs for reconnaissance, using flight capable bugs to carry those that weren't so I could deliver a bigger punch, covering certain bugs with a liquid that burns sensitive areas, and so forth. You can get so much more out of what you have when you think creatively using other items in new and useful ways."

Brunnhilda stopped and turned to me. "You would have me become a Runescribe so that one day I might use said talent in… creative ways?"

I shrugged. "I have no idea what's involved, so I don't know."

She looked like it was far too much work. "Carving – endless amounts of intricate carving. Besides, only Loki ever had the patience for the art, and Odin is the only one with the power and knowledge to use them for anything other than minor things. I highly doubt the Allfather will take the time to teach it to a mortal."

I nodded as we moved on. "So, Loki then."

_1.3_

Asgardian books were virtually nothing like the kind you could find in the dollar rack at the local convenience store on Earth Bet. They were mostly gigantic tomes that had to be manufactured out of science and magic. I think this was due to the whole Allspeak thing they had going on. It hadn't occurred to me that the Asgardians were actually an alien race and not just genetically superior humans in some form. That's why I didn't think anything of them speaking English.

Sure, maybe they'd call it something else, but it sounded and came across as English. I was wrong.

Allspeak in its most basic terms is the language of the soul or perhaps the heart. Things like that are fairly difficult to put into written words. I found that out when I opened up the first tome and found everything was written in a language I didn't have a prayer in comprehending without an Asgardian to English dictionary. Then the movie started playing in my head, complete with sound, smell, and in my face action.

I'm not embarrassed to say that I fell out of my chair the first time that happened. By the window, Loki, still wearing green and black, had himself a good chuckle at my expense before returning to his own much smaller book while I laughed internally about his lack of wardrobe choices.

This was the second day that I purposefully set myself up in the library after hearing that he often wound up there. I'd leave it up to fate to give me an opening I could expand upon if he ever chose to have another conversation with me. If I deliberately sought him out then I'd have to owe him. Judging by the average Asgardian around here, I chose not to go in that direction. There was no telling what kind of favor they'd call in.

I concentrated on one of a dozen or so books Brunnhilda set me up with. My current one was the tale of a race of beings known as Celestials and a bunch of gems that were called Infinity Stones. The things these stones could do would make Scion look like a toddler mining for interesting prizes deep inside his own nose.

My research mainly surrounded what these things could do and how to handle them if I came across any particular one. Basically, I don't. I don't physically touch it, but somehow manage to contain it and then call for Heimdall for the exit plan. Simple.

I could have actually been told all of this by Brunnhilda, in a very short span of time. Instead, I was secluded in a room full of books that I was nervous about reading. Loki didn't make it any easier. He kept glancing my way with a look of quizzical interest. It definitely wasn't because of my wonderful fashion sense or my glamorous looks. Every female Asgardian I'd come across was unnaturally beautiful in various shapes and forms. Most of the males were that way as well.

It was a misogynistic nightmare realm to tell the truth. Mom would have probably been caught in a dozen fights alone on her first day here, let alone at any of the feasts. Musclebound blonde guys tended to have three or more women hanging off them and loved to toss around empty mead mugs while yelling, "Another!" Me? I just stayed in the background and tried not to piss anyone off until such time as I could make it outside the palace grounds.

Why would I want to do that?

Mainly because I wasn't overly familiar with these people at all: their strengths, weaknesses, how they fight, whether or not it was even worth my time to try if needed. Odin was one thing. The man was imposing in a way that would have made Alexandria second and third guess herself before taking him on. Not to mention every time I happen to catch a glimpse of him he was always carrying around that spear of his as if he was hoping to get a chance to use it, mainly on me.

I think Brunnhilda told him about the spiders.

So, why was I studying about these strange and powerful gems? Because, it was part of my mission which had finally been laid out for me. Odin had been having a troubling series of visions of the Earth, a war, a white eagle flying on a black background, and an iridescent blue beam of light. It really wasn't much to go on, but there were a few faces to go along with the bad news. I had several hand-drawn portraits of each of them from various angles.

A rhythmic clicking sounded in my lap and I glanced down to see the female spider looking up at me. A quick check to see that Loki was engrossed in his book and I guided what passed for a butterfly around these parts through an open window and to my lap. The spider lunged, biting the insect that was half its size, and began to devour it. There was no waiting involved, no webbing, no cocooning, and no desiccation. Two crunches later and the purple butterfly was gone.

Of course Loki took this moment to look up at me again and cock an ear. "Mortal biology has changed much since my most recent visit to Midgard, if your kind no longer consumes your meals through traditional methods."

What did he think… oh, eww.

"My… pet needs feeding. There's only two of them I have them working overtime making a costume for me."

Loki's general attitude of aloofness changed slightly as he slid down on his seat to take a look at what I was talking about. Then he started chuckling.

"This is what has father stalking the halls with Gungnir held tight in his grasp. I had hopes the Svartálfar hadn't been exterminated millennia ago, and were roaming the palace in search of the…." He stopped and threw a knowing smile at me. "Is that what has him bending his own laws?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." I really didn't.

Even with Allspeak, sometimes a word doesn't get translated properly, likely because it's the proper name of something that the listener is unfamiliar with. Svartálfar was one of those words.

"The Conjunction; the event approaches in a few years. Has the Allfather misplaced the Aether?" Loki snapped his book closed and stood quickly. "That's it; isn't it? My fool of a grandfather hid it on Midgard?"

Before he could go on, I had my spider scurry up my chest and stand guard on my right shoulder, watching Loki's every move. That stopped the Prince in his steps. He watched my guardian curiously before directing his attention back to me.

"You have nothing to fear from one such as me, dear valkyrie. I confess my curiosity has risen to new heights with your appearance. Even a mortal, with your limited lifespan, must recognize the agonizing boredom that entails living on Asgard over the course of centuries."

Closing my own book, I slid my chair backward. "I wouldn't know about that. Mortals like me are too dumb to think deep thoughts."

"I've offended you," he concluded. "It was not my intent, simply a statement of fact. We exist for thousands of years."

Somehow I doubted that he didn't intend to offend me. "I'll live. Looking down on people from other realms seems to be a national pastime around here anyway."

Loki shrugged knowingly. "If you had personally traveled these realms then you would realize the futility of treating its inhabitants as intellectual equals. They are not. Most of them are savages. The Jotuns of Jotunheim exist in squalor willingly and would love nothing better than the head of Odin to decorate their king's throne. Muspelheim is a volcanic world which serves no useful purpose other than to spew forth mindless beasts that ravage the other realms when given leave. I could endlessly wax philosophical about the others…."

"Please don't," I replied. "Aren't there any worth the time to rule over benevolently?"

Holding his hands behind his back, Loki leisurely paced the ends of the stacks. "The Dwarves of Nidavellir are a useful race, if primitive. They are the ones who take great care in producing weapons of war for the Allfather. Your valkyrie sword, spear, and armor are most assuredly of their manufacture."

This gave me the opening I was looking for. "So they're the ones who etch the runes in the metal?"

Loki stopped and threw a look over his shoulder. "Aware of runes, are you?"

"I can see their usefulness. Brunnhilda said that was how we're able to move our weapons and armor to a pocket dimension when they're not in use."

"Indeed. A beneficial bit of magic; an underappreciated art."

"I agree. With a power like mine it would be very useful."

A grin slowly widened on his face. "Which leads us to this fortuitous meeting."

Damn. I was busted. "What?"

"Surely you did not think I wouldn't see through your attempts at subterfuge, dear valkyrie. Why else would you have been here, in a library that few visit, save for my mother and myself on this day?"

I looked down at the book in front of me. "In case you didn't notice, I was reading. I was here yesterday, and I was here today before you showed up. If anything it's you that are stalking me."

That seemed to amuse him. "I stand corrected. A prince of Asgard has his dastardly plans revealed. What reason shall we use for the guards when they drag me away, hmm?"

I rolled my eyes and leaned back. "Fine, Brunnhilda told me that you and your father were the only ones that know Runelore, and Odin would probably swat me away if I even came close enough to ask about it."

He stared at me for a good five seconds, just long enough for me to wonder if I should make a break for it or not. "The art is not for mortals. You do not possess the talent, the patience, or the artistry needed."

When I made a move to protest he simply held up a hand to forestall me. "One does not simply scratch out a few symbols and hope for the best. Each one has to be perfectly etched in specific size and form, with specific tools, in a specific way. The end could result in tragedy if performed incorrectly."

Oh, ye of little faith. "Try me. Do something incomplete. If I can't copy it exactly then you've lost nothing but a few minutes of your self-professed considerably boring life."

Loki cocked an eyebrow at me, probably for the challenge. I assume he doesn't get many, especially about so esoteric of a subject, and almost certainly not from a dull-minded mortal such as me.

"The stakes?"

Ah, he was playing this game. "What is it you want?"

He pulled out the chair across from me and flamboyantly seated himself with a snap of the garment he was wearing.

"If you do not produce an adequate rendering of the runescript I use as your template then you will remain on Midgard after whatever folly Odin has you involved in has ended."

I returned his challenging glare with one of my own. "Have the property values dropped since I landed in Valhalla or something?"

"Not at all," he said with cheer. "I have need of a minion on Midgard, and you will do nicely."

"A minion," I returned flatly.

"Someone that will do my bidding. Surely a mortal such as you is familiar with the concept. I contact you with a duty; you perform for me. In return I shall supply you with shelter and means for your survival."

"A minion." I thought it over for a few moments. "What's the catch? Are the special tools I need something only an Asgardian can use?"

Loki's lips twitched. "Nothing so infantile. It is simply a test of extreme skill. Your only tool would be this knife."

With a swipe of his hand he retrieved a very small dagger was dangling it off the tips of his fingers.

"Is there something special about that knife or…."

"It is my own creation, but there is nothing out of the ordinary. The size, shape and the markings alongside the blade are themselves crucial. Depths are just as important as any curve or straightedge; a single etching too shallow and the result will be entirely different than your intensions."

I nodded. "Fair enough. If I fail you get a minion on Earth. What do I get when I succeed?"

Loki measured me with his gaze once again. His smug smile faltered minutely in the process. "You are so sure of yourself."

"My prize, Loki. I want all of your notes or whatever on runes. What they do."

He barked out a laugh. "No. You ask too much."

"You want me to be a damn minion. How about _you_ be _my_ minion on Asgard."

His eyes narrowed. "Watch your tongue, mortal, lest it be cut out for your impertinence."

"Yeah, I'm bored," I said as I stood while tucking my book underneath my arm.

"What of our wager?"

With a pause I returned his glare. "The last guy who threatened me wound up blasted out of existence across a thousand realities. I'd rather not annoy Odin more than I have to when he goes looking for his son and finds a wet splatter of goo on the library floor.

He totally ignored the shot I took. "You speak from experience."

"I do."

"Hmm. You've witnessed many wars, have you?"

"I have."

"And yet you are so young, not even arrived at the prime of your life."

Was he trying to compare himself to me or something? I had no idea where he was going with this train of thought.

"I started fighting when I was fifteen, saw and fought my first eldritch abomination before I turned sixteen, and then fought one every three months or so ever since. That didn't include all the battles in-between with the regular horrors on my planet."

He smiled wide, looking on with a faked sort of delight for some reason. "Eldritch abominations? How exciting! And you did this with spiders?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You know what? I think we're done here."

"No, from listening to tales of my brother's exploits I would say spiders would lack a certain… punch. He loves his hammer, you see; never goes anywhere without it, in case he feels the sudden desire to pound something out of existence. You did something else."

He just kept talking as if I wasn't in the process of walking out the door. I'd just have to live with not learning about Runelore. It simply wasn't worth the aggravation of dealing with his type.

"Did you care for the wounded? Perhaps ran errands for those more suited for direct confrontation? With…."

"Loki," I said as I stood at the archway leading out of the library. "Don't underestimate me."

His hands went behind his back as he stood with a curious smirk on his face. "Pray tell, young warrior, why not?"

"You – everyone around here – you're Asgardians. You're long-lived, but you're not immortal. You're powerful, you're knowledgeable, and every one of you that I have met is so full of themselves that it grates on a number of my nerves, but you _aren't_ gods. That much I'm sure of. You think you are, and that's fine. There was a guy who invaded my planet. He probably thought he was a god, he had the power to destroy thousands of planets, absorb the energy of what was left, and then move on to his next conquest."

It seemed I had his attention. "Sounds like an interesting fellow. Where is he now?"

"I personally killed him on Tuesday. I did it with my power to control things, like this spider for instance. That was three or four days ago. I forget… being mortal and all."

Horse's ass.

~O~

The seventh time I had to pick up my sword I was beginning to think this was a lesson in futility. I didn't have the strength in my arms to wield the thing for more than a few minutes with someone pounding theirs atop mine. I think Brunnhilda realized this; at least I hoped she did.

"I have centuries more experience than you, Taylor, and I learned much the same way," she explained with a nice even voice. "Frustration is a fine motivator."

I returned that bit of advice with a grim smile. "I'm not frustrated with that. They stopped using swords as a standard weapon on Earth a while back. They use these things called guns now that shoot these things called bullets, really fast. They make big holes in your enemies who usually fall down and die soon after."

She nodded in understanding. "You will not be on Earth forever."

"It looks like I'll be leaving after this thing," I said before raising my sword in the ready position. "Everyone I've met here, with the exception of you is a pain in my ass."

Brunnhilda let her weapon fall to her side and fell out of her attack stance. "They caused you physical pain?"

I shook my head and relaxed. "No. It's a figure of speech. Look, Odin is only putting up with me because he needs a mortal down on Earth. I just had my first real conversation with Loki before I came down here, and he's…."

She held up a hand. "I know how Loki behaves, and it is not only you that he treats in such a way."

"It's not just him. At the feasts, everyone looks at me like I'm a leper," I explained. "I've dealt with this type of thing before, so I'm not really excited about doing it again. I'd much rather go down to Earth and make my way around there, or maybe you could bring me back…."

I had to stop that verbal train of thought. I probably wouldn't be welcome back on Earth Bet, even if I wasn't Khepri-powered. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'd be killed on sight, or at least they'd try.

"Nevermind. Let's just do this thing so I can leave."

Brunnhilda grimaced at my final word on the subject and her sword disappeared. "Very well. If that is your wish, then finish your research and you may leave for Midgard. I will alert the Allfather of your decision."

I nodded and vanished my sword. "He'll probably be relieved."

"If there is one thing I've learned above all others in my considerable lifetime, it is to never assume what Odin will think on any subject. Oft times you will be wrong a vast percentage of times more than you are right."

When Brunnhilda left I made my way down to the kitchens, or wherever they cook the evening feast in order to find something to eat. They didn't prepare food as much as they just roasted something and tossed it whole onto a giant platter. I just wanted to take something back to my room, make a game plan, and go to sleep. If all went well then I'd leave in a couple of days.

When I arrived, there wasn't anyone around, and there was something vaguely pig-like turning by itself on a spit. It was highly unappetizing, so I chose to go with some fruits and maybe a raw veggie or two. After grabbing a platter I loaded it up, found some cheese and a small loaf of bread, and then headed out.

Thankfully, there wasn't anyone around on the way back to the Valkyrior dorms. I say dorms, because they were arranged that way, not that they weren't any less opulent than the rest of the palace or its grounds. I had a comfortable bed, bath, and even a separate room where I studied during my down time.

Nothing was changed when I arrived. I think it was because the spiders were hard at work in my bedroom and pretty much everyone in the surrounding area knew it, so maid service was a no-go. At least that's what I thought before setting the platter on my worktable amongst a dozen or so books that Brunnhilda said were pertinent to my mission.

There was an extra, much smaller addition to the collection, set in front of the single chair.

I knew there wasn't anyone in my bedroom at the moment because, spiders.

Using a single finger I edged open the front cover and found a note written in English. The calligraphy was elegant. I appreciated the effort it took to complete since I'm sure not a lot of people around here know how to speak let alone write in other languages due to the Allspeak.

_Dearest God-killer,_

_In the event that I am discourteous to you again, please refrain from informing the leader of the Valkyrior. I will in turn assure that you are suitably recompensed for whatever slight I have caused. _

_Loki _

"Huh. I don't even want to know."

The book, more of a notebook really, didn't look like the sum total of his knowledge, but more of a primer on runelore, and when the contents started sinking into my brain I realized it was exactly that: Loki's first delving into the art, over five hundred years old.

"This just might do."

_1.4_

I stared at the surprisingly detailed map of the southwestern portion of the United States that Heimdall had laid out for me in glorious holograms floating above a very tiny emitter. There weren't any state lines drawn or even any major cities marked, but the largest urban centers were more than obvious.

He had his finger pointed a very brown and seemingly empty space. "Here."

I cocked an eyebrow and frowned. "Is there any particular reason you'll be dropping me off in the middle of nowhere, in the desert?"

"Less chance of being seen by mortals," he said bluntly. "There is a local superstition regarding extraterrestrials. If anyone was to report a sighting of the Bifrost while activated, it will most likely be ignored as erroneous."

Taking a closer look, I rolled my eyes. "You guys are responsible for all the Roswell sightings?"

The more I learned about this particular Earth, from Heimdall, the more certain things remained the same up to a certain time period. Cities, for the most part were identical, barring those that were hit by Endbringers on my world. A lot of the costal cites seemed to be flourishing a bit more, but nothing stood out as differing majorly. At least I wouldn't get totally lost.

The whole situation reminded me so much of the alternate Earths back home. Only this one was different in a lot of ways around the forties, and then periodically through the decades. Technologically, they seemed more advanced in some avenues, or at the very least some people thought in radically different ways. The presence of scientifically made capes was proof of that. They didn't have to rely on traumatic trigger events or buy their powers from Contessa and Doctor Mother.

I envied them their ability to choose.

"No," Heimdall answered. "I merely take advantage of what is already there."

With a mild grunt I thought about the distance I had to travel. "I guess it's not that far."

"I would advise practicing with your armor's flight capabilities, young valkyrie."

I was really getting tired of the whole "young valkyrie" thing everyone had going. Yes, I was the most recent addition to the Valkyrior, and yes, I was the youngest member by about eight hundred years, but still. That crap gets annoying after a while.

"I have. I've just been busy making last minute arrangements."

He looked down on me and I almost took a step back from his overly creepy yellow eyes. "Yes, I have been watching and listening. Judging by your talent with runes, you are most fortunate that you are not currently enslaved by Loki. The wager was foolhardy."

A little chill ran up my spine when I realized he was spying on what I was doing. "I can do them perfectly fine with my spiders."

"Spiders you _cannot_ take with you to Midgard. By command of Odin, You will present them to me before I activate the Bifrost for your journey."

Giving him a quick compliant grin, but not actually saying anything, I activated the iridescent wings on the back of my armor and lifted off the platform in order to fly back to the palace.

They weren't actual wings, and I still didn't have a clue as to how they worked, but they did make traveling much easier. They were some sort of energy construct that made me light as the proverbial feather and provided propulsion I still have yet to test at full throttle. Luckily, I had my own flight pack back on Earth Bet, so I wasn't a stranger to flying the friendly skies.

When I landed on the Valkyrior training grounds, Brunnhilda peeled away from a conversation with one of the other valkyries and nodded in my direction.

"Heimdall showed you the location?"

"Yeah, and he's been perving on me just in case you didn't know."

She'd probably be quite happy when I left. I don't think the Allspeak was quite getting my point across a lot of the time.

"Perving?"

"Watching me in my room… in private."

"Heimdall?"

"Yeah. Someone needs to keep an eye on him. It's probably on Odin's orders but seriously, he's a _guy_ that can see and listen to anyone, anywhere in the Nine Realms."

"Heimdall's honor is above reproach," she stressed more than was needed.

"Uh-huh. Keep on thinking that when you're in your bath after a long day of doing valkyrie stuff. I'm a mortal, so I'm probably safe, but you actually have Asgardian assets that he might be interested in."

Hopefully he was listening. That should make him think twice about jerking me around about my spiders – probably not, but hopefully. Either way, the next time she was in the bath, I had no doubt she'd remember my words. Not that she had anything to be ashamed about. The leader of the Valkyrior was the perfect model of blonde goddess perfection. At least she had a decent personality to go along with the perfect body.

Long ago, relatively speaking, I'd learned to deal with not being the perfect physical specimen. Genetics were against me there, but at least I'd finally grown out of the gangly teenager I was three years ago when I went through a massive growth spurt while I was with the Undersiders. I hadn't been mistaken for a guy for quite some time. Granted, that could have been due to my reputation, but I'd like to think it was because I filled out a little.

Having the armor didn't hurt.

Most shapely women look fat in armor if they didn't have the height to pull it off properly. Me? I looked pretty damn nice. It almost made me rethink the whole spider silk costume, but that was what I knew. Using something a lot heavier would affect the way I fought, and I was too far along at the moment to do something like that. Maybe later, when I had time to train properly, I'd go with something different.

Of course, I wouldn't be a valkyrie by that point, so this train of thought was fairly pointless.

"When will your preparations be concluded?"

I shrugged as Brunnhilda motioned inside. "My costume is ready. I just need a little more time to finish the runes on a few more things."

"Not the spiders?" she asked warily.

"No, not the spiders; I have to give those to Heimdall so he can stab them to death with his gigantic sword on orders from Odin."

"They are dangerous creatures, Taylor."

I shook my head. "I get it. I just hate wasting resources if I don't need to, and this is my one chance to work with them."

We continued along the corridor until it opened up into the main hall which eventually led to the kitchens and Odin's giant hall.

"The position will remain open until you return from your mission, if you happen to change your mind."

"And stay a valkyrie?" I confirmed.

Brunnhilda returned a single nod. "We perform important work, similar to your current assignment. Having someone that is unlike others in the Valkyrior opens avenues to Midgard that we were unable to use before."

That was something new. "So, I'd most likely stay on Earth even after this is over with?"

"Stay?" she replied with a glance toward me. "Not necessarily. However, the majority of your assignments would return you there often enough."

Once we made it to the big hall I noticed the feast was already in full swing. The tell-tale sound of a mead mug crashing to the floor alerted me that Thor was back from wherever he disappeared to the other night.

"Another!" he yelled while he was groping a chesty redhead.

I almost expected another girl to pop up on his other leg, but I guess he was inquiring after more mead. With an annoyed sigh I stopped and gestured to Brunnhilda.

"I'm going to eat in my room."

She frowned and looked over to Thor's table. "You must not let them intimidate you."

"It's not intimidation. They don't scare me. It's the nausea I feel when I see all these women throw themselves at him like he's God's gift. It puts me off my meal."

She shrugged. "Thor will be the next king of Asgard. The position of queen is highly sought after, inevitably dulling the minds of women around him."

My nose involuntarily wrinkled at the thought. "And you wonder why I would rather be on Earth?"

With a resigned look on her face Brunnhilda turned to me. "I will procure us a meal and we will retire to your quarters, if you wouldn't mind the company."

This was a first. It had been almost two weeks since I had arrived and now my boss wants some private time, probably to talk me into staying after I was finished on Earth.

"Uh, sure."

When Brunnhilda disappeared into the kitchens, I leaned against the wall and took in the idiots at the tables. Loki looked bored and even took the time to glance my way with a genial smile. One of Thor's friends, the one with the small Van Dyke beard even went so far as to poke him followed by a gesture in my direction, and then laughed uproariously. I could imagine exactly what was being said while I scowled in the guy's direction.

The brunette, sitting across the table, turned and looked curiously at me and then her eyes widened as I had one of my spiders quickly drop from the ceiling on a strand of webbing, coming to a stop on my shoulder. She nudged Thor with a kick under the table, and I'd finally come to the attention of another prince of Asgard.

He narrowed his eyes at me for a moment and then turned his attention to Odin, who was sitting on his throne speaking to a short line of people. Somehow the big guy knew he was being started at and raised his attention to his son and then to me. I watched as his grip tightened on that spear of his, but eventually he turned away, ignoring me entirely.

That didn't seem to satisfy Thor. He set his mug down and waved off the women surrounding him, grabbed his hammer and stood just as Brunnhilda exited the kitchens. She held two platters of food, one of which was significantly smaller than the other.

My boss immediately noticed something was off about the situation. Probably comes from being the head valkyrie and the whole thing about knowing when someone was about to die power they possessed. When she saw the presence of my spider, she followed my line of sight to the beefcake at the table.

"It is not wise to threaten the Odinson."

I shrugged. "I was just here leaning, not doing a thing. Blame the pretty guy with the tiny beard. He started it all by poking Loki."

"Fandral, close personal friend to Thor; threaten him all you want."

Brunnhilda and Thor shared a long moment across the distance. Her side of the exchange was grim and somewhat annoyed, while Thor's was more on the uncomfortable side. It was probably the reason he sat back down followed by the low thump of his hammer back on the floor.

"You actually stared him down," I said with mild disbelief.

"Hm." Handing my platter to me she gestured away from the hall. "We were lovers once, long ago, before Odin took me into service and created the Valkyrior. It was unseemly for him to associate with me afterward."

Someone had to be high when they decided that. "Unseemly? You're like the catch of the century."

I received a nod for that. "I agree. However, it is widely known that Odin prefers his son to wed the leader of his armies, who sits across from him, the Lady Sif."

Once we were clear of the hall I commented, "Judging by the women that are pawing him right in front of her, I'd guess he doesn't exactly want a political marriage?"

She grunted, which I found she usually does when she really doesn't like something. "I bear the Lady Sif no ill will, but she's a fool if she considers Thor will take her as his queen. Yet, she thinks if she waits long enough he will eventually accept her."

"Friend-zoned. Been there; bought the shirt."

Brunnhilda shot me a look at that. "Oft times I merely misunderstand one word, and now you offer me two sentences of nonsense."

With a chuckle I started down the stairs that led to my quarters. "Friend-zoned means someone that… well, an unrequited love. Thor thinks of her only as a friend."

"Ah, a statement that bears much truth."

"Been there; bought the shirt, means that I've personally experienced something like what she's going through."

Once we reached my room, I pulled an extra chair from the bedroom and dropped off my guard-spider to continue weaving a roll of extra silk for the future. I might not have another chance to work with them once I leave, and this way I'd have something to mend my costume if need be.

"What are your plans to retrieve the object?" she asked once I sat down and broke off a piece of what passes for poultry around Asgard.

I shrugged. "Heimdall says they're keeping it in southern Nevada, so I'll stake the place out, send in some bugs to confirm, and then go from there."

She looked at me, confused. "That's it? What have you been doing all this time?"

"Without blueprints of the place I can't exactly make a plan yet. I can do that with my bugs. Trust me. This is what I do… well, it's what I can do. I used to just fight other capes, but in unfamiliar territory I had to get there and form a plan first."

Brunnhilda thought it over and nodded. "I suppose that is prudent."

"I've been learning Loki's runes also; preparing."

She swallowed and took a long drink at her mug. "You are actually learning?"

I nodded. "It's easy enough with the spiders. One measures the rune and the other mirrors it onto whatever I need. That's one of the reasons I like them. Their front four legs are strong enough to cut into metal easily. So, I'm pretty much stocked up on weapons, food…."

"Food?"

Leaning back, I smiled. "Yeah, mostly fruits and veggies. Those trays they have on the tables at the feast replenish themselves constantly from the kitchens. I just carved the runes onto the tray and stick it in the pocket dimension, poof, fresh food whenever I want it. I'll still need to stop by a sports store whenever I get there and load up on my usual equipment, but… what?"

Brunnhilda was sitting there staring at me. "I owe you my apologies, Taylor."

"Why?"

She dropped her meat and wiped off the tips of her fingers. "When I envisioned you wanting to learn runescript for "creative" reasons, I did not care to think you might want it for something other than a place to store spoils you might come across after your battles. You aren't the first person to think of using the Heavenly Realm in such a way. Perhaps I misjudged your intent. For that, you have my apologies."

"Oh… um, thanks. You're not the first though, so don't beat yourself up over it. Most of the capes I fought back home didn't think much of me when we first met, especially the overpowered ones."

"They came to regret their initial thoughts," she concluded.

I grinned. "Yeah, you could say that. When a lot of them saw my bugs they thought since they could regenerate, had near-invulnerable skin, or used fire or something to surround themselves that they were safe enough. Sure, they'd be annoyed, but they could crush me eventually and then the bugs would go away; end of story."

A thoughtful look dropped over her face. "I must have missed these times."

"It was early in my cape career." Shifting uncomfortably, but decided to go ahead. "I did some things I'm not exactly proud of."

"You regret them?"

"That's the question, isn't it? I'd like to think I'd do things differently, and there are some… events that I actually would, but overall, what I did and the reputation I built allowed me to save the world. So… no. I don't regret what I did. I'd probably wind up doing them in a different way, because of my experience, but in the end if I didn't do the same things then trillions of people and a number of alternate Earths would be dead."

We moved on to lighter subjects and finished our meals soon enough, then I brought out my serving platter full of fresh fruits, plucked one off the top and offered her one. Brunnhilda grinned and shook her head before taking a yellow apple.

"How long have you been doing this?" she asked.

"About five days I think. They don't exactly miss anything, so nobody complains."

"They wouldn't. A number of us pilfer the kitchens between meals due to irregular hours. What I mean to ask is how long you have been partaking of these."

She held her apple up and showed it to me before taking a sizable bite.

"These are my favorite. Very juicy and it tames my sweet tooth. Why?"

"Hm? Oh, no reason. I'm happy that you will have a personal supply of them. Try to have one every day. They're very… nutritious."

Right. Thanks mom.

~O~

I wound up with four feet of silk before the morning hit. My spiders were exhausted. I had them etch the needed runescript onto the edge before sliding into the pocket dimension along with all the rest of my crap that I'd accumulated over the last week. Hopefully they didn't have a precise inventory of the palace, because I had a lot of stuff tucked away that might prove useful in the future.

With my costume on as a base, I called my valkyrie armor and took a last look around the room. Grabbing Loki's notebook I headed out to the small terrace and activated the wings before taking off down the rainbow bridge toward the Bifrost.

Heimdall was waiting for me with a stern look on his face while I guided my spiders down my armor and onto the floor.

After neatly killing them he looked to me. "Do you have any more of these creatures?"

"Those were the only two on the grounds, Heimdall. I made sure of that before I left."

His creepy yellow eyes bored into me before he was satisfied. "Are you ready to begin your journey, young valkyrie?"

"Sure," I said, gesturing toward the Bifrost. "Let's crank this thing up."

"You need only call out to me for your return, ideally without mortals looking on, ideally in the same place in which you arrive…."

"Ideally, in one piece," I mumbled.

"That goes without saying."

Sliding his giant sword into the control mechanism I watched as the room started spinning around me and eventually a blue beam of light lanced out into space.

"Yeah, that doesn't look safe at all."

"I find that the journey is easier if you hold your breath," he said as a final goodbye.

"That makes sense, I guess." Girding my loins, so to speak, I approached the light and then said, "Fuck it. I've been dead before."


	2. SHIELD

_**Note: Thanks for the comments those of you have left. **_

_**2.1**_

_April 26, 2011, Puente Antiguo, New Mexico (north of Roswell) _

The rock hard sand beneath my boots was covered in an intricate set of runes that were far beyond what I had learned in Loki's primer, and they were literally burned into the ground. Being on one knee, trying desperately not to lose my breakfast, I had a good minute or two to study them. The ride wasn't smooth at all. It made me wonder exactly how the Asgardians traveled like this all the time, entering into battle seconds after arriving. I suppose having a hardier constitution than a mere mortal had something to do with it. Or perhaps the whole "holding your breath to make the ride easier" was a load of crap. Yeah, I could see Heimdall as a troll. The guy had to be bored out of his mind perving on the entire Nine Realms, with nothing else to do.

After swallowing hard for the fourth time I called my spear and used it to help me stand.

"Well that sucked."

A few seconds later I and it seemed as if my body was finally adjusting well enough to dispel the spear and have a look around. It wasn't exactly flatland or rolling dunes like one would expect of the desert, unlike what I'd seen on TV and in the movies. There was that though, and rocky protrusions, not to mention various wildlife. Bugs were aplenty, though most of them would be useless to me at the moment. Unless my estimates were wrong, I had a seven hundred mile trip ahead of me and it was the middle of the night here in an amazingly chilly New Mexico.

I thought the desert was supposed to be hot!

Activating my wings, I shot up into the night sky and closed off my helmet soon after. I wouldn't be going high enough to have a problem with breathing, but going that fast would wreak hell on my complexion. I wasn't so far distanced from my early teen years to where I didn't have to worry about acne. No thanks.

Once I got high enough I looked around and realized I'd probably outdid myself this time. There was a feint aurora being caused by whatever powered my wings. Easing off a little I dropped a few hundred feet and that seemed to do the trick, making me all but invisible unless someone was specifically looking in my direction. Then off I went.

The Hulk, one of the two parahumans Heimdall mentioned to me, was currently south of the border, somewhere in Central America. I wasn't familiar enough with the geography in the area to pin it down more than that, but as long as he stayed put, what he was doing didn't concern me too much.

Iron Man, on the other hand, made his home mostly in California. That was a little too close for comfort considering I was heading to southern Nevada in the Mojave Desert.

Heimdall only watched them long enough to ascertain where they were spending most of their time and not much detail past that. So, it wasn't like I knew if they were part of a team or if they went with more of an independent route. Since they were so far apart I was going with the latter until proved wrong.

While I had a general area I needed to search, it was a big desert. It would have been nice if this high tech armor came with a nice, "You are here. Your destination is there," sign.

The location was remote, so I had that going for me. Contrary to what some people might think, the United States isn't overpopulated in terms of lack of space. They watch movies about living in New York City and think that everything is just as crowded, that people live in tiny no-bedroom apartments and survive on nothing but cup of noodles while they go about their lives. There are some people like that, don't get me wrong.

Thing is, once you get off the East Coast and head west, you can literally walk all day long in places and never see a single person. There are vast areas of empty space, mountains that rarely see any traffic at all, and vast valleys that medium sized cities could thrive within.

This is the only thing that made my destination somewhat easy to find once I was high enough to really look around. It's the lights that give it away, that and the giant white helipad with a black eagle taking up most of the middle.

Below me, out in the middle of nowhere, stood a sprawling building, with only one road, leading to and from Highway 93, east of Mount Tipton. I wouldn't even really call it a road for the most part, but it was well traveled. Two black SUVs were humming along at a good clip while I watched at my vantage point hundreds of yards away.

This was one of those expansive flat areas, well once the mountain was taken out of the equation. The building itself was about three or four stories tall, around two hundred yards wide, and had the air of a secret government facility all over the place: armed guards, random patrols, ten foot tall chain-link fence with razor wire on the top, and from the looks of the yellow lightning bolt signs hanging from the links, I had to say it was electrified as well.

There was no way I would be able to just swoop in, take a look around and swoop back out. This was going to take some time.

~O~

_April 28, 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada_

Illegal drugs along with the people that sell them are a thing. I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoyed terrifying the latter, and how willing they were to give up everything they took in over a night when presented with one of my bug clones.

After a few takedowns I moved on to the local Wal-Mart and dispelled my armor so I could buy something that wouldn't stand out too much in a crowd, well, that and a few supplies. Granted, my costume wasn't much better, however, it was better to look like someone going to a party instead of an armored goon looking to conquer the local department store. The few looks I received were understanding for the most part. Apparently, Las Vegas was loaded with enough weird looking people for me to appear as one of the locals.

Getting a hotel room was easier than I thought, especially on the edge of town in one of the more low rent areas. Slipping a hundred dollar tip on top of renting it out for the week was enough to get the teen at the counter to look the other way when I couldn't produce a valid ID. I guess it helped that the place was only a third occupied.

My take from the dealers amounted to a little less than a thousand dollars. I'd have to make a few more hits if I was going to be staying for any length of time. Hopefully, I'd be done and gone by then.

Odin's visions didn't give me much to go on in terms of specifics: check out the facility in Nevada and fine out how the low-tech mortals of Midgard could come to interact with the realm of Asgard… and stop it.

Simple. At least, one would think.

With the way governments work, all I'd have to do was make it more expensive to continue with a project than the end result would warrant. Bugs were good for this type of work. If I could figure out what was going on in the building, I'd swarm it and break it with my bugs. They'd have to replace or repair the problem, and then I'd break it again, _ad infinitum_. Eventually, they'd quit or move it to another location where I'd screw with them again until they gave up.

It was a no-brainer plan and wouldn't even take up much of my time once implemented. Though there would be a lot of sitting around and waiting involved. That's why I had a nice large stack of magazines at my disposal.

~O~

_April 30, 2011 Mojave Desert, Nevada_

Day four was turning out to be annoying. From my research of the area, it rained on average around four days out of an entire year. Guess what day it was?

I defaulted to my valkyrie armor for the trek up the mountainside this time. It was sealed tight against the elements, thankfully. My swarm was taking point ahead of me, as usual, giving me a visual layout of the surrounding area, but they were severely hampered by the downpour. When I landed, I was in the midst of deciding to call it a day, because I couldn't see much more than fifty yards ahead of me. Everything turned into a gray fog of rain and vapor rising off the heated ground, and I had no idea how long it was supposed to last.

"Excuse me," a male voice said from the side.

I jerked and spun on him only to find he was well out of my reach and backed up by four others holding rather large weapons trained on me. They were all guys, all in the six-foot range in height, and all of them were wearing rain ponchos to protect them from the elements. The lead guy, who I assumed was the one that caught me off-guard, held out a billfold with a gold badge secured inside.

"I'm Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD." He flipped it closed and tucked it away. "You're on restricted land, and while I have to say I like the armor, I have to wonder why exactly you have been watching our facility for the last four days?"

I could get away easily. My armor and the costume underneath was more than proof against their bullets. My wings would take less than a second to activate and blast me well away from their range soon thereafter. However, they were aware of me already. I probably wouldn't get another chance to observe them, and I definitely wouldn't get a chance to see what was going on inside that building.

"Would you believe I'm from another world and I'm here to stop an interplanetary war from erupting?" I said rather bluntly.

He looked as if he was going to say something and then stopped. "I was going to say I've heard stranger things, but I think you've just made the top of the list."

I just smiled as well as I could under the circumstances.

"Why don't you stand there for a few minutes," he replied. "I'll be right back."

He turned away and then stopped and looked back. "You wouldn't by any chance know about a bright blue beam of light that appeared in the sky above Puente Antiguo a few nights ago and left behind a fancy design a lot like what's on your armor, would you?"

Raising a hand slightly I said, "Guilty."

"Good to know. I'll be right back."

The other four guys didn't seem much for chatting, so I stood there in the torrential downpour and waited for Phil to make a call. I couldn't even muster up enough bugs to listen in on his side of the conversation before they were washed away in the rain.

When he finally returned he gestured down the other side of the mountain we were on, toward the facility. "My boss would like to have a few words with you, if you don't mind."

Walking, yeah. No. While I wasn't a klutz by far, I was sure I'd fall on my ass a dozen times or more before we made it to the bottom and across the mud-filled landscape.

"No car?" I asked.

He smiled knowingly. "We didn't want to spook you until we had a chance to talk."

I nodded. "Right. I have a faster way to get there, not to mention much safer."

He cocked his head slightly with a confused look on his face. "You don't… have a spaceship up there do you?"

"No." With a thought, my wing constructs popped out and I stepped in and wrapped an arm around Phil's waist. "Hold on."

Agent Coulson's eyes widened. "What? Wait!"

We didn't wait. I shot up into the sky, but kept it low enough not to really freak him out. Ten seconds later we were touching down on the front steps of the facility where I finally got the chance to read what was written on the sign outside.

_**Joint Dark Energy Mission **_

_Western Division_

_Project Pegasus_

_NASA Space Radiation Facility_

_S.H.I.E.L.D. Accelerator Testing Ground_

Yeah, most of that was more than a little suspicious. What the heck was Dark Energy? Additionally, if there was a Western Division, that meant there was more than one out there, and I didn't have a clue as to the location of any of the others.

Phil appeared slightly rattled, but held it together rather admirably as he adjusted his poncho. "Did you miss the part where I said 'wait'?"

I shrugged. "Most people get panicked when the thought of flying under someone else's power comes up; this way it's done and over with. Besides, I don't know if you realized it or not, but it's raining really hard."

He cleared his throat and noted that the guards had made an appearance. With a wave of his hand they stood down, but kept me under close watch. I tried not to let it get to me. Once we were inside the front doors Phil unbuttoned the poncho and handed it off while someone passed on a couple of towels, which I was thankful for. While my armor shed the water quickly enough, my hair outside of my helmet was drenched.

"So, your name?" Phil asked as he patted his hands with the towel.

Being who I was, I'd already thought about this part. I didn't need any more villainous monikers attached to me on a brand new Earth. However, I did want to keep the nature of my true powers under wraps, at least until my mission was finished, or until it became impractical. Already wearing my Asgardian armor was rather fortuitous.

"Valkyrie."

He paused for a moment; I suppose to think over the ramifications of the name. "That's a very specific designation, and considering the style of your armor, not to mention the wings… were they real, by the way?"

"Energy construct."

"Ah. Anyway… I'm guessing there's a Norse theme involved?"

"Sort of." I glanced at the guards. "Do you want to do this here?"

"I'm tempted, but we have a more secure area."

Of course they did. Phil gestured to the right and I followed along while I was checking out the area with the bugs that were already indoors. It was a lot bigger on the inside and not in a Doctor Who kind of way. There had to be a number of underground floors beneath the building and one really big one at the very bottom, by the feedback I was getting more than a hundred feet down. Needless to say we didn't go very far and there wasn't an elevator in sight. I'd say Agent Coulson was very cautious about what he was allowing me to see. After all, this was a research facility from the public's point of view.

It was a small conference room. Dark colored wooden table, six generic chairs, and nothing overly comfortable. The widescreen on the wall was dark, along with the single laptop at one end of the table.

Roaches and spiders in the wall told me there was something up there that wasn't in the general area of the lights or the outlets. I guessed they were security cameras by the configuration.

When the door was closed, he turned to me and gestured to a chair on the other side of the table.

"We were talking about your Norse theme," he prompted.

"Asgardian actually."

By this time I think he was well enough indoctrinated to expect pretty much anything coming out of my mouth.

"I see… the pantheon, I presume? You're saying you're a god?"

Apparently, he thought he was dealing with a crazy person with high tech gizmos or something.

"No, not me. Though some of the people I work for might think so."

He nodded and folded his arms across his chest. "Let's talk about them."

With a shrug I didn't see anything really wrong with that, since he already knew something was up. If I was going to spend the rest of my life on this Earth, I'd rather not make overly powerful enemies in less than a week of my first day on the ground. Friends and allies; I could definitely do with some of those.

"They're really long-lived, like thousands of years long, and they have severally advanced technology. That's where the whole mythology came from. They used to hang out on Earth from time to time and the Norse people looked at them as gods, thought they used magic, and so on."

"Ah, any sufficiently advanced technology…." He left the rest hanging. "Makes sense. So, just for argument's sake, we're talking Odin…?"

"Thor, Loki, Sif, Brunnhilda, Heimdall," I continued. "All of them."

"And you take the souls of the heroic dead to… where was it again?"

"Valhalla. Yes, but not technically. They haven't done that for about a thousand years. We're more mission specialists now."

"Which brings us to your visit."

I leaned back on my chair and narrowed my eyes at him. While his belief wasn't exactly important to my mission, I did need to stall long enough to search the place with my bugs. At this point I really didn't know if he was buying any of this. So I pulled my serving platter out of my pocket dimension.

Phil blinked as I set it down on the table, clearly unsettled at my casual display. "Where did…?"

"It's part of my power, and it's a good way not to go hungry in a strange place. Fruit?" I offered.

Plucking a yellow apple off the top, I bit into it and chewed as he looked back and forth from the tray to me.

"Asgardian fruit?"

I nodded. "The apples taste like apples here, a little sweeter. The red things taste like passion fruit just not as messy. The green and purple ones are veggies. They're kind of bland, but nutritious. Go on. They're perfectly okay to eat."

Maybe he just didn't want to look like he was cautious of Asgardians bearing fruit, but he did take one of the small red ones.

"Safe for humans?" he asked.

"I'm human," I clarified. "I'm not Asgardian, so, yeah."

Phil sniffed it and then took a small bite. "Hmm."

The platter disappeared a second later.

"Where does it go?"

"Brunnhilda calls it the Heavenly Realm."

"Brunnhilda."

"She's the head valkyrie; my boss."

He nodded and took another bite. "It's good."

I took another bite and eventually swallowed. "Anyway. Odin had a vision."

"He does this a lot? I thought he rode around on a six-legged horse."

I shrugged. "Never saw it. He tends to sit on his throne and look constipated for the most part, but he's also a straight-shooter from what I can tell. We don't really interact much, but Brunnhilda vouches for him."

"Your boss."

"Right."

Once Phil finished with the fruit, he grabbed a tissue and wiped off his fingers. "So, interplanetary war?"

_**2.2 **_

Phil was nice enough to send out for a cup of tea. I expected a very long talk if SHIELD could be compared to any other government agencies I've dealt with. Proper whistle wetting was a must in these sorts of situations. By these sorts I mean congenial interrogations, because that's what this was. He was smooth enough at first, but I could see a certain type of style with the method he used on me. It was one that said, "Since you're cooperating, I'll be nice to you, but don't expect me to go easy."

When I sat the cup down after my first sip, I nodded. "Thanks. All that rain out there and I'm still dry-mouthed. Isn't it ironic?"

His brows furrowed and I watched as his lips twitched at the same time. "Alanis Morissette?"

"Who," I replied somewhat confused.

He shook his head. "Songwriter; she did a thing; not important. We were talking about the war."

"Right." With a gesture, a box appeared on the table and Phil jerked.

"I really wish you would warn me before you do things like that."

"Sorry. It's my stash container. I just can't send every little thing away. It would take far too long to prepare them and… nevermind. The box has my stuff in it. It'll be easier to explain with visual aids."

When I folded the lid over, Phil leaned toward me to look inside. From the expression on his face I think he was disappointed to find it pretty cluttered.

"I just bought some things, clothes and supplies, so I could fit in."

"Uh-huh," he commented nonchalantly. "What all is in there?"

Oh, he was probably looking for weapons or maybe a bomb. "The worst thing is a couple of pepper sprays, but they're in the backpack."

"I could have sworn valkyries were supposed to carry a spear, or maybe it was a sword."

"Both. Usually not at the same time," I replied. "I'm more of a Smith and Wesson kind of girl. I wasn't always a valkyrie."

He seemed interested in that particular point, but kept on watching me dig through the box. "Really? So, it's more of a job?"

"Brunnhilda recruited me from Valhalla."

"Don't you have to be dead to go there?"

"Pretty much," I said as I finally found what I was looking for and pulled out the long sheets of what passed for paper in Asgard. "I was shot twice in the head. Next thing I know I was walking into this really big tavern."

Phil's eyes popped up, looking for evidence I suppose.

I pointed to my forehead. "Right here; shot from behind."

"You seemed to have gotten over it pretty well."

"Odin again. The heroes in Valhalla heal over time, or else they'd be pretty much useless whenever Ragnarök came about. Odin accelerated the process and turned me into a valkyrie."

When I flipped the lid closed, Phil turned his head to take in the drawings. "Is that… Captain America?"

"Who?"

He reached out with a hand. "Do you mind?"

I shrugged and slid them over.

"Steve Rogers was the world's first recorded superhero, back in the forties. His plane went down and the body was never found." He studied with the drawling with intense interest, almost boyish if I had to throw a label on the expression. "It's an amazing likeness, but the helmet is all wrong. Where did you get this?"

"Odin. His vision was a bunch of snapshots of the future. This was one of them."

Phil looked up at me. I could swear that I thought he was going to pop right there on the spot. Instead, he set everything down on the table and started spreading the sheets apart, taking each one in as he did. Once he made it to the girl with the red hair and blood dripping down her face, his body language nearly shut down and he went cold.

"You know these people," I concluded.

He didn't bother acknowledging what I knew was fact. "What is this?"

"That… I don't know." I leaned forward and saw the blue beam of light that wasn't the same color as the Bifrost. "It's not good though. That one and this one over here is what spooked Odin the most."

I moved a picture of a green monster out of the way and pointed to the one underneath.

"Is that an explosion?" he asked. "And what's with the circle? It looks like clouds or maybe smoke on the outside and an explosion on the inside."

Leaning back, I settled onto my chair and watched him. "Unknown. Look at the background, around the explosion. That isn't debris from the blast; they're stars, and then only inside the circle."

Phil pressed his lips together, most likely arranging all the pieces of the puzzle in his mind and coming to the same conclusion that the Asgardians did. At that point he started gathering all the sheets.

"I'm getting copies made of these."

I nodded. "I guess I'll be waiting here."

"This shouldn't take long. I'll be back."

He was already tagged with a few flies, so were the guards just outside the door.

~O~

"Hey Boss."

"Coulson. Are you buying any of this?"

Someone with a rather deep and commanding voice stood in the middle of the room where Phil eventually wound up. It seemed to be some sort of command center or maybe just an observation room, which would make sense considering the cameras I noticed earlier. A dozen or so monitors were lined up on the wall. If I could only see them then I'd be happy.

"Let's say that I've seen some really questionable things in the last hour. I have them routing the pictures here as soon as they're scanned in. Take a look at the first one."

I sipped at the last of the tea in my cup and attempted to look nonchalant as I was listening in through my bugs.

"Hng. While I admit there's a good resemblance, this couldn't be Rogers. The man's been dead for over sixty years."

"Are you thinking clone or maybe a descendent?" Phil asked.

"It's a possibility; one that I'm not too happy with, but that doesn't explain the others. What's she doing with a picture of the Black Widow?"

"A lot of red flags are being raised that I don't have answers for. She claims that Odin had a vision and these are the scenes he saw."

"Yeah, I was here for that part. I see a lot of high-tech toys. Does she have any hard evidence to support her claim?"

"Like an Asgardian passport? I don't know, Boss. Short of visiting the place myself I still have a hard time believing most of what she's saying, but she does have a reasonable answer for every question I ask. To top that off she's saying it all with a straight face. I don't read any deception off of her and that makes me nervous."

"Clench up. Barton's eyes are off, then there's Stark, Romanoff, Banner, Rogers… who's this guy?"

"Erik Selvig; Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Culver University. He was brought in by Jane Foster in Puente Antiguo to help explain what's going on down there."

"Which we're now attributing to Valkyrie's arrival by the blue beam of light thing in the middle of nowhere." There was a brief pause before he continued. "I don't like crap like this going on in my backyard, Coulson, especially not with what we've got downstairs. Dig deeper with this Valkyrie. I want proof positive she is who she says she is before we take another step."

"You want me to hold her?"

"_Can_ we hold her?"

"Unknown. She's displayed some interesting abilities already, and I'm not exactly sure what kind of metal that armor is made of. Ideally, I'd like to _not_ find out if she can pull something out of that Heavenly Realm of hers that could level the building."

The boss guy chuckled. "Run with what you're already doing, drain her dry of intelligence and I'll make my decision after. Get me some proof she's from another world or Asgard or wherever. The Council wouldn't even consider changing the game plan without something really big getting in the way, and I'm not likely to either. For all we know, she's from this other world we're supposed to get into this war with, and they sent her here to infiltrate. I'd do the same thing in a heartbeat."

~O~

When Phil returned, it was with my pictures in hand which I returned to the box before dispelling it once more.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

It wasn't exactly a surprise that they'd try to pump me for any and all information. Like his boss said earlier, I'd do the same thing in a heartbeat, especially if it looked useful.

"I get that you want to know everything about me, Agent Coulson, and if we work together to end this threat, then I'll tell you pretty much everything that you want to know."

He smiled lightly. "That obvious, huh?"

"I'd do the same. Anyway, as far as I know this is a valkyrie thing or maybe an Asgardian thing. I know how to activate it, but not the science around the process."

Phil nodded. "So it _is_ science and not magic."

With a shrug I leaned back. "I think they're pretty much the same thing on Asgard."

"Hm. My boss wants proof that you are who you say you are."

This time I was ahead of the game and already thought of a few responses for the more obvious questions or demands.

"Short of taking you to Asgard personally, I don't know how. Even then, what will that prove? You won't know if our intentions are sincere or not."

He seemed interested in that option. "_Can_ you take someone with you?"

"Depends on Heimdall; he's the one at the controls, and he's not supposed to retrieve me until my mission is complete."

"Heimdall?"

"He's the one that guards the Bifrost. That's how I got here."

"The blue beam of light."

"Right. He cranks up the machine. I step into the beam and it shoots me from there to here."

"Interesting."

"Nauseating."

He crossed his arms again and looked at me. "You don't get used to it over time?"

"Uh, maybe. Since it was my first time I don't know."

Something obviously clicked in his head, and he made a small leap in thought. "This is your first mission."

"Like I said, I was recruited from Valhalla. They wanted a mortal so I'd fit in better."

When he shifted I could almost tell he thought he'd caught me in a lie. "Ever since we first spotted you we've been running your face through our recognition programs. We're coming up dry."

"Maybe you don't have all the faces in the US included?"

"We're very thorough; the database is very comprehensive."

That made me wonder exactly how big this organization was. Did they work hand in hand with the CIA and the FBI? Alphabet agencies usually only carried images of people of interest. Maybe the NSA?

"Alternate Earth?"

Phil blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I'm from an alternate earth."

"I thought you were from Asgard."

"Originally, I was from Earth Bet. We had a planet-wide war. I was killed and wound up in Valhalla."

He nodded, seemingly unsurprised at my answer. "Are you from anywhere before that?"

"Not that I know of."

By that point, my inspection of the floors below ground was pretty much complete and I was annoyed at not finding anything, especially since the boss here acknowledged that something big was downstairs. Granted there were a lot of places that I couldn't get into: containers, cleanrooms, and so forth. I could manage it with more time, but by the first pass I got nothing. If the big item was here, it was thoroughly sealed away from prying eyes and prying bugs or I just plain didn't recognize what it was.

That wasn't out of the realm of possibility. While I wasn't expecting a glowing neon sign that read, "Mysterious item here!" I was at least hoping for a specific place where a number of people were congregated above others. I didn't even get that. Everyone that I'd tagged looked no different from any other office building I've invaded. People were simply going about their business.

I did find the elevators though.

"Let's talk about the Asgardians."

With a shrug I nodded. "What do you want to know?"

"You said you originally aren't one, so let's go from there."

Other than gaining intelligence on the other side I really didn't think much of telling him everything he wanted to know. Most of the big names were already legend and it's not like they had the ability to even find the place much less attack it if they were so inclined.

"The people are pretty much the same from the mythology, at least the ones I read about. I've told you some of their names already. One of the books I read while I was there was a brief, sixth grade type primer of the Nine Realms: names of the others, the locals, and so on. They weren't big on the details since it really wasn't part of my mission."

He nodded. "Give me some examples."

I blew out a breath at what he was asking for. I was really the wrong person to bring out for a history lesson.

"I'm not exactly knowledgeable about the subject."

Phil waved my concern away. "A simple prospective is fine. It'll back up whatever our researchers can dig up."

"Okay. Well Earth is Midgard. Then you have Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Alfheim, Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Svartalfheim and Niflheim. Asgard rules over all of them and basically slaps them down if any of the tries to start a war. Like the Dark Elves did five thousand years ago. They're all dead now."

Phil cocked his head. "All of them?"

"I guess. Like I said, it was a very basic info guide."

"So… Asgardians are not above genocide."

Oh shit. That sounded really bad, but I suppose it was pretty much true. "From what I read, they were going to destroy the universe, so Odin's father was backed into a corner."

"Why would someone want to destroy the universe? Isn't that where they live?"

"I have absolutely no idea, and I really think you should talk to someone that actually does before passing judgement on them."

"Fair enough. Can you call them up?"

And there was the crux of the situation. My mission was to find out what was going on and stop it from happening. I suppose having some sort of negotiations between the worlds would count… maybe. Huh. I was almost disappointed. It's been something like three weeks since I killed anything or even caused massive amounts of destruction. Maybe this was the beginning of a new me. Maybe Skitter and Weaver were people of a bygone era that didn't have to define who I was anymore. Maybe I could just talk my way through situations instead of escalating everything until death and destruction were the means and the ends.

"We need a place where we won't be seen. Las Vegas isn't exactly far enough away."

Phil nodded. "Right. Big beam of light. I'll see what I can do."

~O~

The day wore on and I wound up relaying the general stuff that most likely didn't mean anything to anyone. Seriously, I didn't go to very many places while I was there, so it wasn't like I was able to talk troop numbers or weapons capabilities. They pretty much kept me secluded in the training area, my room, and places between until the last day or so. Maybe Brunnhilda knew that I'd sing like a canary when I got here.

Now that I come to think on it, they were probably expecting me to do just that. It's not like I owed them my loyalty. Sure, they saved my life, but that was about it. They really didn't go out of their way to endear themselves to me or anything of the sort. Well, Brunnhilda did, but one person out of a couple of dozen that I interacted with? That didn't really jibe with normal personal interactions, from my experience anyway.

These were Asgardians though. They didn't necessarily have to fall in line with human expectations.

"Why are you scowling?" Phil asked me as we were riding in the back of a helicopter to the middle of nowhere. Apparently there were a lot of these places in the desert.

"I think I've been played."

"How so?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet. I let you know when I figure it out."

When we landed, I hadn't even cleared the rotors of the helicopter before the Bifrost had been activated and the sand exploded about fifty yards in front of us. At least it wasn't raining anymore.

"Yep. I was played."

"Should I be worried?" he asked.

"No. For some reason they weren't supposed to be coming down here. That's why they brought me onboard. I'm human, so me coming here isn't a problem, but now someone from here, in authority, has requested they come down," I explained.

He nodded, picking up where I was going. "It's not their fault anymore. We asked them to come. Which leads me to my next question: a thousand years ago, why did the Asgardians leave and not come back?"

I frowned and noticed Brunnhilda step out of the beam along with someone who really didn't belong in this type of situation.

"The one on the left is my boss, Brunnhilda, leader of the Valkyrior."

"Another valkyrie – and the other one?"

"Thor."

Phil turned his head slightly. "As in _the_ Thor?"

"That's the one. Note the hammer. Hide your women."

He threw up a perfunctory smile at the two new visitors and whispered. "You owe me an explanation for that last shot."

"Beefcake, 'nuff said."

"Ah."

"Taylor," Brunnhilda spoke upon her approach. "The Allfather sends his regards."

I flinched slightly when she used my real name. We really had to sit down and talk about the unwritten rules. Phil and his team of researchers now had a name to add to their endless search. I don't know if he bought the whole alternate Earth bit from before.

"Brunnhilda of Asgard," I said congenially, "Meet Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD."

She already had him in height in her bare feet. Add boots and her valkyrie helmet and Brunnhilda nearly towered over Phil.

"A pleasure," she replied.

"Welcome to Earth. And you would be Thor."

"I am, Phil, son of Coul." He looked around and raised a brow. "Midgard has changed since last I set foot on this ground. A desolate place it has become."

"We're in the States, not Norway," I said, wanting desperately to add, 'you idiot' to the end.

Why did they bother sending someone that wasn't the least bit familiar with the area or the culture? Meh, that's why I was there, I suppose.

"States?" Thor said, somewhat confused. "What are these states you speak of?"

Phil broke in before I had the chance. "The United States of America. Norway is on the other side of the world and a little more north of here."

"Odinson," Brunnhilda interrupted. "The Allfather sent us here for a purpose, not to sightsee."

He didn't take it as a rebuke, just gave a sharp nod and looked to Phil. "Come, son of Coul; take us to your ruler. We have dread matters to discuss that concern the safety of the Nine Realms."

I glanced at my boss and shook my head in disbelief. She set a hand on my shoulder and leaned in while the guys headed to the helicopter.

"He is soon to be crowned King of Asgard. Remember this, Taylor."

_**2.3**_

_May 3, 2011 _

Officially, it was the second day of talks. I don't know if it would technically be considered negotiations since it wasn't like they were battling over land rights or the ending of a war, but there was bartering involved, and I was fairly sure I overheard mention of Asgardian support of one type or another. Brunnhilda, the only person on Earth at the moment who knew the most about my power, forbade me from listening in on the private talks. I didn't see what the big deal was, but she explained it as bargaining in good faith. It was the Asgardian version of the Golden Rule.

When I let her know there were cameras covering every square inch of that building, recording everything that was said or done, it didn't make any difference whatsoever. Asgardians were the bigger people in this instance, in her eyes anyway. That didn't stop me from making it known to Phil that I knew they were watching.

He just took it in stride, like it was simply a fact of life that he'd be recorded doing the least little thing when at the facility.

While they did that, I showed Brunnhilda around Sin City, at least the parts that I'd already visited. It was really weird being in a place where parahumans, or their equivalent, barely existed, where the common person off the streets didn't have to worry about someone flying in and melting their car for no particular reason. There weren't any PRT trucks racing down the street to contain the next big threat, no Wards interacting with the locals or signing autographs, and no sense of impending doom on the horizon in the form of the Endbringers. Best of all, there was no Scion.

Granted, there was a Hulk, which turned out to be the green monster in Odin's picture. He rampaged every so often in different parts of the world, but there was no horrendous death count to speak of. It was just average everyday people going about doing average everyday things.

In other words, it was awful.

I was going stir crazy with want of something to do; anything. I think that's why Brunnhilda had me out and about, dressing in civilian clothes that she thought were quaint looking. Me? I felt dumpy wearing a pair of linen shorts and a thin cami to escape the desert heat, while she was the picture of poise and muscled grace in a pair of jeans and a colorful tank. Of course, she'd look awesome in anything she wore.

While there weren't any comedic face-plants while we walked down Las Vegas Boulevard, men didn't even bother approaching her. They just stood out of the way and stared.

This was obviously a very bad idea. Sure, I wasn't biting at the bit to hunt down some sort of criminal element, but my ego and self-image were taking a massive thrashing.

"Are all of Midgard's cities like this?" she asked

I glanced around at all the glitz and glamor with a measuring eye. "If it's anything like my Earth, then no. People come here to gamble, drink, and generally to do things they'd be less likely to do at home where they're supposedly more civilized. That's probably saying it mildly."

She quirked a smile. "I understand. We all must have a place where our darker selves are allowed to be set free."

That didn't make me feel any less disturbed about what went on around here. "There's a difference between relaxation and debauchery."

"You mistake what amounts to escapism for something more sinister, Taylor. Within each of us is something more malevolent than we'd ordinarily show to those that know us best – something selfish and dark. It must be given free reign from time to time or the beast inside will express itself, will find a way out at a less than opportune time."

I shot her a brief look and then set my attention in front of us in an attempt to change the subject. "Am I finished here – for Odin, I mean."

"On Midgard? That depends on you."

"What's that mean?"

Brunnhilda stopped in front of a storefront and looked curiously at the display in the window. I pulled up to her side and tried to wait patiently.

"If you so choose, I can conclude your duty to the Valkyrior and you may go about whatever business you desire, here and not on Asgard. However, I wish you to consider something."

If it was going back to the training grounds and being the local pariah then I'd have to choose a big fat no.

She looked down at me. "What would you do here?"

I suddenly found myself with nothing to do with my hands, so I shoved them into my pockets. "I don't know. It's… too peaceful. I'm used to barely having time to breathe much less entire days of doing nothing. I guess maybe go back to school? Get a job? I don't know. I haven't really put much thought into life beyond the cape."

She nodded. "Understandable. The impact you…."

When Brunnhilda continued down the sidewalk I had to stop her with a hand to her upper arm. That's when the high-pitched scream coming from the guy darting out from between stores interrupted the flow of pedestrian traffic. Hot on his trail was a swarm of wasps that had been nesting not too far away. The guy ran out into the boulevard, slapping at his own face, and straight into a moving van, before bouncing off of it and staggering away as fast as his legs would take him.

Brunnhilda glanced back at me and I shrugged.

"He was mugging someone… or about to anyway." I looked around the side of the store and there was a middle-aged guy in a Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts picking up his wallet from the ground. "You okay?"

He nodded bewildered. "They came out of nowhere."

"Huh," I returned. "Weird."

Another scream came from down the street – same guy, judging from the pitch. I guess my wasps caught him. Well, I didn't really have to guess. They gave him two stings to the back of his neck and afterward I steered them away and back above the stores out of sight.

"No more shortcuts," he mumbled before he increased his speed away from the scene.

I sighed, almost euphoric. After going so long between incidents it was like starting my cape career all over again. The quick and easy satisfaction of helping an average everyday citizen had been lost to me years ago. Everything I became involved in was large scale life and death. It was nice to just help without making a gigantic production of the situation.

Brunnhilda suppressed a smile, but I could see she was chuckling underneath it all. "I was concerned that this would be more challenging. I think you need something to keep you occupied beyond the occasional… mugging did you say?"

I narrowed my eyes at her, already seeing that she had something planned for me that I might object to. "What would be more challenging?"

"If the talks are fruitful then my people will be coming here on occasion. We have lost relics that were left behind a millennium ago, items that would cause havoc if found by mortal men. We intend to retrieve and secure them elsewhere. While Midgard is still using ancient technology compared to Asgardian, they are not far from making their presence known to the greater galaxy. If you are willing, I would like you to remain here and be the face of Asgard amongst your kind."

"Face," I said more to myself than to her.

While I definitely wouldn't mind hanging onto the armor for its flight capability alone, I didn't know if remaining a valkyrie and having to eventually answer to Thor of all people was the wisest decision to make. I just could just see him yelling for "another" and me sending him a mouth full of bugs. Then there would be this big battle and things just get really messy soon afterward.

"Why would you want me of all people hanging around?" I asked. "I'm not exactly popular with your king and the guy that's soon to be king."

That seemed to have pressed the wrong button with my boss.

"I was not born only of Asgard, Taylor. Have care how you speak of outsiders, especially if you still think of yourself in such a way," she said rather dramatically. "It was the Allfather that chose an outsider, me, above all others even his own kin, his favorites. While the Odinson is lacking in certain qualities that some might think are needed in a true leader, do not think him thoroughly imprudent. He may be rash at times, when his temper is high, but he has been guided by Odin himself in the ways of his role as leader to the citizens of Asgard and the Nine Realms as a whole."

She had to be kidding somewhat. "You don't consider me an outsider on Asgard?"

"New perhaps, but someone that doesn't belong? No more than a number of others that eventually comes to be considered brother and sister among those that have lived there all their lives. Hogun the Grim, for instance, is Vanir. His homeworld is Vanaheim, yet he is one of Thor's closest friends and allies. At some point even Hogun was what you consider an outsider."

That wasn't as great of an endorsement as one might think. Becoming what amounts to the equivalent of a frat brother with a sword wasn't exactly a goal in my life. I had no desire to become the second coming of Sif.

"Odin learned long ago that popularity has no place when filling certain roles," she mused. "While he might question my decision as to who I bring into the Valkyrior, he has always ceded to my choices, and not one of them has ever been wrong. You deserve the chance to prove your right to be there, Taylor, to him and to yourself."

"Why would I want to?" I said before actually thinking. "I mean…."

"I know of what you speak," she replied grimly. "This is why I would prefer to have the Valkyrior training grounds somewhere other than butting up on the palace itself. My valkyries have enough on their minds without having to suffer the indignity of being looked down upon at first. However, such is that way in every walk of life. Am I mistaken?"

I sighed and reached up to rub between my eyes as I thought of how things were when I first started out as a cape. Lisa, with Brian as a close second, was the only one that really saw beyond the geeky girl that threw bugs at Lung. When I joined the Wards, my team was the only one that even wanted me in Chicago, much less out of prison.

"No; you're right."

With a nod Brunnhilda seemed at ease again. "Then take my advice, Taylor. Remain as you are – one of the Valkyrior. Use this mantle as you will, with honor of course. Aid those on Midgard in the name of Asgard. I would even go so far as to suggest building a comradery with this group you encountered. They seem somewhat powerful in this land."

My shoulders dropped and I nearly groaned. "I'm not joining SHIELD… but I'll make myself available if they need help."

With a sharp nod, Brunnhilda smiled. "A wise decision."

~O~

When we returned to the facility I made myself comfortable in the original conference room where Phil interrogated me, while Brunnhilda went off to do whatever it was she was doing here. Setting my bag of purchases on the table I pulled out the X-acto knife I bought and started practicing my runes. It was better than sitting around doing nothing but listening into meetings that I shouldn't be listening to in the first place. Seriously though, why shouldn't I? The golden rule never really worked where I was concerned anyway.

"… will not be one of your warriors, Agent Coulson."

"Agents," he corrected. "If you want her to work with SHIELD then she will have to go through the training like everyone else. She couldn't be more than eighteen or nineteen years old. Normally…."

Brunnhilda's voice took on an edge that makes most people back away when she used it. "Taylor is a valkyrie of Asgard. She has seen and participated in more battles than you could dream of against foes more powerful than her by several orders of magnitude. Still she prevailed."

"Coulson," yelled the boss guy from across the room. "What's this?"

"Sorry, Boss. Brunnhilda was telling me about Valkyrie's qualifications. I was considering sponsoring her for training at the academy."

"Yeah, I heard that part. What's this about fighting powerful people?"

"Taylor originates from an alternate Midgard where your Iron Man and Hulk are a two among tens of thousands of what she would call parahumans – those with powers far above those of the average mortal."

"You don't say," the Boss replied with increased interest. "So she has a lot of experience taking these parahumans down?"

"If by 'taking down' you mean was she a member of the local law enforcement and was she directly responsible for defeating even the most powerful among them, then yes."

The room went quiet for a few moments before the boss stood. "I think this is good time for a break, Prince Thor. I'll have someone bring you some lunch. Coulson, take care of our guest."

I tried my best to not respond to what was being said, even when I already told Brunnhilda to go easy on who she announces my name to, but this was all about me. So I took a nice cleansing breath and leaned back with my X-acto knife and a block of wood, trying my best to remain looking bored while the leader of this place was making wide strides in my direction.

Needless to say, he didn't bother knocking.

"You're Valkyrie," he said as a matter of fact.

I tilted my head up just a little and made a minor show of still concentrating on my work. "And you're…?"

"Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD."

Well, that put an end to my speculating as to how high up the ladder this guy stood upon. Apparently, it was the very top. He had a presence about him, even beyond the whole dressed totally in black thing he had going, not to mention the eyepatch covering his left eye, the overly long leather jacket, and the two pistols he had hiding one underneath each arm.

I already had a number of bugs on him and found more than the average person's fair share of weapons: a knife off center at the small of his back and a back-up strapped to his calf. This didn't count whatever was folded up in his jacket pockets. I guessed when told you'd be meeting an ancient Norse god then you'd come prepared. Personally, I think I would have brought a rocket launcher.

"Your valkyrie buddy in the room down the hall had some interesting things to say about you."

With a wry smile I looked back down to my block of wood. "You're here to make the pitch, I'm guessing?"

"What pitch is that?"

"The one where you want me to take down the parahumans that are annoying you. The Hulk I presume. From what I've seen of Iron Man, he's more help than hindrance."

He shot a quick glance at me and started to slowly pace the room. I guess that's where Phil picked up the mild intimidation trick from.

"You would presume wrong. As long as you leave the Hulk alone then he's not much of an issue. Stark is… well, he's Stark. Tell me about some of the threats you've gone against."

"Why?"

He didn't even break stride. "I'm told you want to stick around here on Earth. You have to have a paper presence in order to have a life here. SHIELD can provide that, amongst other things."

I shrugged and tried to play the situation as cool as I could. While it would be nice to have just that, I didn't want him to know I was fairly eager for the opportunity. I learned long ago not to show all my cards at the first go-around.

"I'm not one for bragging. That's where the Asgardians and I differ. Suffice to say when I'm pointed toward a mission I make sure it's complete, usually to the annoyance of those that only want to look good for the public or for those above them on the food chain."

He nodded. "You dot your I's and cross your T's; is that what you're saying?"

I shook my head. "No. I mean if I go in to take out the bad guy, I don't stop in the middle of a mission to ponder if I'm doing the right thing anymore. If somewhere along the way I find out that I'm not doing the right thing, well that typically goes bad for the guy that sent me on the mission to begin with. I don't usually take orders without cause and explanations, Director Fury; I'm the one that gives them."

He shrugged, almost uncaring. "SHIELD wouldn't be your thing then. I do have a better idea for your talents, though. The idea is to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they become something more. See if they can work together when we needed them to. To fight the battles that we never could."

My brows furrowed and I set my block of wood down. "You know about more parahumans?"

Fury deflected the question. "Let's say, for instance, I did. Do you have experience pulling them together, working as a team, or do you work as one of the team under someone else?"

"Both, but I've been team leader for a while now, hunting down the worst sort."

"Hm. This valkyrie thing; it's not your only gig is it. That came after Brunnhilda picked you up."

Hats off to the Director. He definitely wasn't stupid. "No. It isn't my only gig."

He stopped and narrowed his good eye at me. "What is it you do?"

Revealing my true powers was something I wanted to keep under wraps for a while, at least until I got my footing on this new Earth. However, Fury was skirting around something that I could really have an interest in pursuing. Being part of a team of parahumans, on a planet that was just emerging into its own onto the scene? It was like the beginnings of the Protectorate. They could do so many things wrong in the process, at least wrong by my terms. I could actually make a difference to those that would be coming into their powers for the first time.

Granted, they wouldn't be triggering like I did, since there wasn't a Scion in the mix, but the thought was the same. Lead them instead of using them.

"Don't freak out," I warned him.

His voice took on a defensive tone. "Freak out about what."

It was the low buzzing that alerted him that things weren't as they should be. The second was when the air conditioning vent started spewing forth my swarm. Hundreds of bugs: wasps, common houseflies, roaches, ants, scorpions, centipedes, and so forth landed on the ground on the far side of the room and built up from the floor into a single swarm clone.

Fury's single eye widened, but I couldn't tell if it was from fear or simply amazement. Either way, he stood his ground rather valiantly.

The clone took two steps toward him and stopped, buzzing out, "Hello, Director Fury."

He licked his lips a single time and then backed away enough to keep both of us in his line of sight. "Is that… you, or are you making them do that?"

"They're an extension of me. I see what they see. I hear what they hear. They do what I want them to do."

Then the penny dropped for him. "You've been watching us this entire time."

I nodded. "The entire facility. That's why I never tried to break in here, or confront you until I was ready."

That part was a tiny white lie, but not technically.

"How many?" he asked.

"Bugs? How many can I control?" When I received a nod of conformation I smiled as evilly as I could manage. "All of them."

"Can you," he made a gesture and I dispersed the clone, allowing it to shoot back up through the vents. When they disappeared, Fury pulled a chair out and sat down. "Let's talk about the Avengers Initiative."

_**2.4**_

_May 3, 2011_

Our conversation was revealing if nothing else. The Avengers Initiative, while still in its infancy, was on shaky ground with those even higher on the food chain than himself. Some people like to rely on good old fashion ordinary mortal knowhow. Fury wasn't one of them. The read I got off of him was that he was the type of guy that would use anyone or anything to help him meet his goal, and then he'd deal with the fallout afterward.

I could relate. I think that's one of the things he noticed about me right off the bat.

My mission, if I chose to accept it was to see if I could build one of these teams out of the dregs that he was given over time. It wasn't going to be full of high powered, well known people like Iron Man, and definitely not the volatile Hulk – they were for when the entire septic system hit the fan and not just the average every day shit. Even then, they weren't a guaranteed thing. It would take something incredibly dangerous on the horizon to bring them on board.

He had something much easier to manage, something that I could figuratively cut my teeth on, in his eyes… eye… whatever. If I could prove that I could get something like this done, then he'd move me up the ladder to play with the big boys.

It was more than I could reasonably hope for, if I was honest with myself. I really didn't expect to walk in the door and be trusted with all the toys and the free reign to do with them whatever I wanted. People like Fury needed to see results for themselves.

He opened the door to the interrogation room and stepped out with me right behind him, shopping bag in hand.

"Carter," he yelled down the hall.

A woman walked quickly toward us, mid-twenties, blonde, shorter than me – maybe five-seven or eight – in a gray pants suit. She looked a little young to be among all the older agents I'd been exposed to.

"Sir!"

"Agent Carter, this is Taylor Hebert codename Valkyrie. I'm bringing her onboard," he said before looking back at me. "Carter will be working alongside you providing logistical and material support. She's the SHIELD side of this project."

Carter didn't look like she had a clue as to what was going on, but she hid it well. She just stood there with her hands clasped behind her back, with her suit coat buttoned, all riged and determined, except for the clueless thing.

"Carter," Fury said when he turned back. "You'll requisition a quinjet and get over to Hill's field office. She'll head the project until it bears fruit. Set Valkyrie up with all the standard materials, and…." He stopped and looked back at me with a gimlet eye. "Do you even own any normal clothes?"

I glanced down at my shorts and cami. "Not really. My armor is standard fare on Asgard."

That got Carter's attention. She took me in with a different sort of attention, most likely measuring my looks compared to Brunnhilda and Thor. I didn't exactly toe the statuesque picture they did.

"Fine. Get her set up and looking like a project manager, at least. Hill will fill you in on the particulars when you get there."

"Yes, sir," she replied respectfully.

"Oh, and Carter, I'm bumping you up to level seven. You'll need clearance to access most of the information on this." He nodded to her and then back at me. "I'll be keeping an eye on you, Valkyrie."

While Carter went off to arrange a ride to wherever this field office was, I took the time to find out if this was what Brunnhilda had in mind for me when she offered me up on a silver platter to the locals. That sounds worse than I actually think it was, but the thought was valid.

"How go the talks?"

"As well as expected," she replied. "We will be required to notify SHIELD whenever we arrive on Midgard as to the purpose of our visit. In turn we will be assigned an escort until such time as we are trained in local customs."

I smirked. "You realize that isn't the reason you'll be escorted, right? They just want to keep an eye on you and have first dibs on whatever it is you're after."

"Agreed. Most of these items will be useless to a mortal and some of them would be lethal. They were designed with an Asgardian physiology in mind."

"Ah." That made sense I suppose.

"We have no objection to their presence."

I nodded. "And they have no objection to Asgard offering up protection for any future problems Earth may have from the other realms, I'm guessing?"

"Which we are bound to do, as Midgard is within the Nine Realms and the Allfather's rule."

"And it took two days to figure all of this out?"

"No." She looked down on me. "It took a single day to explain why we exterminated the Dark Elves and a few other issues in our past."

"Oh." My bad.

"Nicholas Fury accepted our reasoning. The rest is details."

That was my cue. "Well, I accepted Fury's offer. I'm off to… somewhere."

Brunnhilda smiled slightly. "I will ask Heimdall to keep aware of your whereabouts."

"Not too close," I warned. "Remember what I said about him being able to see everything."

"Agreed; not too close. Farewell, Taylor. If you have need of my counsel, simply call on Heimdall and he will bring you home."

~O~

The quinjet reminded me of a junior version of one of Dragon's ships. It wasn't quite as roomy and there wasn't tinkertech lying around every five feet, but I could see the appeal of using one of these things to get around as opposed to the commercial scene. I just wished the company was a little more talkative.

"Are we there yet?" I asked as I leaned over what I guessed was the co-pilot's seat.

Agent Carter shot me a look and then realized I was joking. "Sorry, I know we're supposed to work together, but right now I don't know what you're cleared to know."

I nodded. "And you can't reveal where the super-secret base is along with what your average day is like at SHIELD until you do. Yeah, I get it."

When she gave me the go-ahead to at least sit on the seat behind the one that could see out the front window I let her pick the topic of conversation.

"You're Asgardian."

"Uh, no."

She looked back at me. "But…."

"I just met them three or four weeks ago, and I got recruited to the Valkyrior, but I didn't grow up there or anything like that."

Carter seemed almost disappointed at that news. She probably thought this was supposed to be some great adventure with aliens that looked totally human, and strangely enough spoke English.

"I'm from an alternate dimension – another Earth."

That cheered her up. "Oh… how does that work?"

"I don't have a clue. Brunnhilda – the other valkyrie – she picked me up and brought me on board."

She nodded. "And now you're working with SHIELD."

"Right."

Awesome; man this conversation sucks. Instead of trying to make more, I just leaned back and picked a blank portion on the hull of the ship to stare at.

There were similarities between this Earth and my own, enough to call forth a little melancholy. There would be people and places that I missed from my old life. However, I'd thoroughly burned all of my bridges when Khepri came into being. They wound up killing me in the end. I suppose I understood. I would have done the same thing, or at the very least stuck me in a hole in the ground for the rest of my life. With all things being equal, I think I would have chosen two to the head rather than live my life in a prisoner of my own warped body.

I don't bear them any ill will for their decision for that. What does piss me off was the whole idea I was all but forced to do it for the survival of our race and those of numerous other Earths as well.

With a shake of my head I shoved those thoughts away and tried to concentrate on other things. Dwelling on the fates of my friends and my dad wasn't going to do anything but make me moody and easily annoyed. This was a time to make new friends and get on with my new life.

"Are we there yet?" I said and immediately thereafter started chuckling.

"Actually, yes," Carter supplied with satisfaction. "Strap in for landing."

That didn't take long at all. We couldn't have gone far – a few hundred miles if that. I have to give it to her though; she made a very nice landing. Dragon would have been proud. That's something good to note. It's really difficult to beat an AI that has perfect control over her own ship.

The loading ramp dropped down in the back of the ship and there was already a prim looking woman waiting about ten feet away with her hands clasped behind her back, thin eyes, short cropped brown hair and dressed in a dark blue SHIELD uniform.

Since everyone else was going about their business, she was obviously there for us.

"Agent Carter," she opened with a slight jerk of her head.

"Agent Hill, this is Taylor Hebert codename Valkyrie. Director Fury said you would be in charge of the project."

I've received the look she was giving me so many times before. It's the one that says, "You don't look like much, but people I respect say otherwise. What is it about you that has them so wary?"

I really should have changed on the flight over, but sometimes it's better to be underestimated – at least until it's time not to be.

"Ms. Hebert, Carter." She turned away but kept the pace slow until we caught up. "This is Director Fury's pet project and has been ever since Stark blasted out of the Middle East last August."

She looked over at me. "You're familiar with Tony Stark and Iron Man?"

"Multi-billionaire, tinker, flight capable power armor; that's about it. I've been here less than a week."

"Tinker… cute."

I shook my head. "Not cute. It's a classification system that defines pretty much every conceivable parahuman power out there; with accompanying direct response ratings that will warrant degrees of normal human response and if a parahuman presence is needed."

Hill looked thoughtful for a moment. "I look forward to your first report defining this system."

Dammit.

Here I was thinking I'd learn a little about this world's parahumans then head out into the field, and I've just set myself up for starting from virtual scratch building SHIELDs parahuman response protocols.

Hill definitely noticed my reaction. "This particular location is where we _make_ the red tape, Hebert. Welcome to SHIELD."

Agent Carter quirked a smile before we stepped into the elevator and waited for Hill to choose a level.

"You two have a single office and an assistant to take care of the little things until you warrant more. A quinjet and a mobile response unit, along with the typical bells and whistles, will be at your disposal twenty-four-seven. Anything beyond that will have to be requisitioned through proper channels – me. Show me that you can be productive with what you have and I'll push Fury for a new division."

Carter took that moment to finally speak up. "The Director wasn't exactly clear as to what we'd be doing."

Hill thumbed at me. "That's her call."

The elevator doors opened in front of a desk with two badges already waiting for us, one with my picture displayed. Hill picked that one up and handed it to me while Carter was clipping hers to her suit jacket.

"Everywhere you go in this this facility, you wear this. Nobody but Agent Carter and me knows why you are here. Let's keep it that way." She directed the last part to Carter. "Level seven or above only."

"What's one through six?" I asked.

"People that are fresh out of SHIELD Academy on up." Once I clipped the badge to my cami we continued on. "You're being given a provisional level seven compartmentalized clearance. In other words you'll be allowed access to materials that pertain to your purview only. Don't try to muscle in on other level seven projects; you'll be denied. Agents work for years and bleed copious amounts of blood to earn the privilege of wearing that."

"I've bled, Agent Hill; trust me. I won't abuse it."

Her hands went to her hips and she stared me down, probably not knowing whether to believe me or not. "How old are you?"

Oh, this again. Like age was some ultimate qualifier of experience. "Eighteen."

"And you've bled? What are we talking about?"

I looked to the side and saw that we were relatively private. "I think the worst was a little over a month ago when I was in a battle with a hundred other parahumans and I was ripped in half at the waist. Hips and legs went one direction and my torso went in the other. That hurt. But I've been in the middle of war zones, faced a number of eldritch abominations up close and personal that would make you turn and run screaming for your sanity and a nice quiet office. So, yeah, I've bled. I started all this at the tender age of fifteen. So, don't talk down to me about paying my dues, Agent Hill. Just state what I can and can't do and then leave me the fuck alone until I produce."

She stared me down, and believe me when I say she had absolutely nothing on Alexandria, but she gave it her best shot. Then she glanced at Carter who was currently looking at me like I'd grown gills or something.

"I think we'll get along just fine. Carter, tell your assistant to get her something to wear. We have an image to maintain."

~O~

The office wasn't exactly something to write home about. Lisa would have had a field day with the computer set up and the potential goldmine of information that was likely on the SHIELD servers. I could almost imagine the thinker headaches it would have produced for her.

Once I was outfitted with a SHIELD standard uniform and my measurements were sent out somewhere for some pant suits I settled in behind my new desk and pulled up a standard report template Carter set up for me. Meanwhile, she got to work studying the materials concerning our project so she could get up to speed.

It wasn't glamorous in the slightest, but it was hopefully a new beginning for parahumans on this planet.

It only took an hour of work before Carter pulled up enough courage, or whatever, to ask me what had been bugging her since I locked horns with Hill.

She spun her chair around. "Did you really get torn in half?"

I looked away from my attempt to classify a breaker. "Uh… yeah. I was on an oil platform out in the middle of the ocean at the time."

That obviously didn't fulfill her curiosity. "How… I mean… how?"

"How'd I survive?"

"Yeah."

"Luck, preparation, inspiration born out of insanity, and in the end a bio-kinetic."

Before she could ask the next obvious question I went ahead and answered. "The bio-kinetic could touch someone and do anything she wanted to their body: cure cancer, fix broken bones, engineer a plague – all of it in seconds. She grew me a new lower half."

Carter sat there staring at me. "There's powers out there like that?"

"Here?" I shrugged. "I don't have a clue. Back home it's just another power. Granted, it had the potential to be used incredibly badly, but she was mostly sane there at the end. She did the right thing when we needed her to – put a lot of people back together that otherwise would have died. That's all I really cared about."

She wanted to say something else, but I didn't know what, so I offered a distraction. "Can I get access to everything we have on Iron Man and the Hulk, power wise, so I can use them as examples for this classification system I want to set up?"

Carter paused to for a moment and then nodded. "Sure."

"And anyone else that's displayed powers. Fury said we had something called The Index? The wider selection of powers I can use as examples, the better."

"Right." She tapped on her keyboard and clicked her mouse a few times. "There you go. Just to warn you, anytime these kinds of files are accessed, it gets flagged; Agent Hill gets notified."

I nodded. "Well, she's welcome to look over my shoulder if she wants, just as long as she doesn't get in my way."

"She's the Deputy Director, one step below Director himself. The bad-ass attitude will only go so far with her."

I grinned. "I know her type Agent Carter. Get results and she's happy. You can be as much of a jerk as you want, just as long as you get the job done and make her look good. I don't have anything personal against her as of yet. I don't even know her. This is just me being me."

"A bad-ass?"

A tilt of my head to acknowledge her assessment later and I had to shrug. "Being a parahuman on Earth Bet meant beating your enemy. No that's not right; it means annihilating your enemy so thoroughly that even those with powers in the upper tiers should question whether or not they want to fight you. At least that's what it was like at the beginning."

"When you were fifteen," she confirmed.

"I was fifteen when I stuck nanothorn halberd into Leviathan's ass - think giant monster that can manipulate water any way he wishes -went up against a group of parahuman serial killers commonly called the Slaughterhouse Nine – the name alone should give you a general idea of what they do when they come to your city. Then I celebrated my sweet sixteenth birthday by executing a guy, with a bullet to the head, he liked to drug up a twelve year old girl in order to use her power as a pre-cognitive so he could rule over my hometown."

The seed was planted I just had to water it a little.

"I'm not telling you all of this to inflate my ego, Agent Carter. All of that was done in less than a month of my life. The truth is I _am_ a bad-ass. I have the wallet, bought the shirt, and the bag of chips that came with it. It's why I take this job seriously, and will come down like a biblical insect plague if people get in my way and as a result turn this world into something like the one I came from. I won't have it."

The elephant in the room just sat down and rolled around for a good minute before she responded. "Does Director Fury know about all of this?"

I licked my lips and then grinned. "That's specifically why he offered me the job."


	3. New Mexico

_**Note: Just a reminder: Wildbow owns Worm and the MCU is owned by Disney. Thanks again for your comments; they are always appreciated. **_

_**3.1**_

_May 31, 2011_

The first week had me busy typing up all that I could remember about PRT protocols. While I knew quite a few of them it was because of my interactions with personnel in the field and not so much behind the scenes. Most of the threat assessments weren't as useful, because this Earth hadn't developed things like containment foam – at least the kind the person trapped in it could breathe through. It wasn't their main line of defense for the low end cape. SHIELD's was through more mundane means: hand to hand, stun guns, and projectile weapons. I was told there were other things in the works, but that was beyond my limited security clearance. Hopefully, it would help spark ideas that they could incorporate into their own response teams.

It may seem like I'm one of the lead people on the project; at times I feel like I'm anything but. My scope was severely limited and Sharon Carter was my minder. It was her judgement, probably backed up by Hill and Fury, as to what I was allowed to see, where I could go, and what tools were at my disposal. Officially, I still didn't even know what city I was in. Thanks to my bugs, I'd overheard enough conversations to know we were somewhere in the mountains just south of Simi Valley, California.

Security reasons; I get it. As far as they were concerned I was a pseudo-alien that was being backed by a major power that offered up something they wanted or at the very least something they might be able to control. Truthfully, if I was in their position with their power backing me, then I'd probably be doing the same thing. One just doesn't walk up off the street and get handed a seriously sensitive job like this without any boundaries.

It wasn't like I was hampered so much I couldn't do my work. The second week I wound up going through each and every one of the people that were on the Index, their files anyway. A good number of them were incarcerated already and if their personality profiles were anything to go by, those particular people were deranged and dangerous enough to belong in the Birdcage. Their powers did something to their minds or they were simply the type of people that never should have possessed them to begin with.

A handful of people were in other countries that fell under the purview of the foreign divisions of SHIELD. I concluded that their abilities were more along the lines parlor tricks, or even nuisance powers. For instance, there was a teen boy that lived in France who could turn any part of his body the color blue. That was it.

While I consider myself talented in terms of making something out of virtually nothing, I couldn't think of a damn thing to do with him.

As far as I could tell, each and every one of them triggered – for lack of a better term at the moment – though accidents. Science was the cause and not some multi-dimensional space being shedding parts of itself. Ultimately, I suppose I could call that science as well, but I'm sticking with more mundane terms when I use the word.

In the weeks following, there were a handful of prisoners that I'd personally spoken with at the Fridge – SHIELD's version of the Birdcage. The ones that didn't seem entirely sociopathic I mean. Six of them were a complete wash, and two I was very iffy about. They went into my last resort pile while I had Agent Hill running some different psychological profile tests on them to see if they might be willing to work on some sort of probationary status.

The only reason I suggested it was because they weren't involved in purposefully hurting other people. Their powers were just that volatile. A big enough mistake and people could get hurt just by being around them.

The past two days I had foregone my regular running routine at the really nice gym they had for agents that lived on site. My knees and thighs were killing me, I think from overstress. I was never much of a weight lifter so most of my athleticism came from running and general calisthenics. Needless to say, when I'm without my routine, I substitute coffee in its place. Their tea really sucked.

When I made it to the office that morning, Sharon had already beaten me there and had a profile up on the big screen as I walked through the door. Armed with a half empty coffee cup I was mildly coherent.

"Another bad night?" she asked in a voice that was far too chipper.

"I'll get over it."

"You really ought to drop by medical. It's what they're there for."

I shrugged and dropped off a file on my desk that I had been working on the previous night. "Who's this?"

She grabbed a controller off her desk. "Sarah Garza; she's a level three SHIELD computer technician."

I raised my brows at that. "She's a cape?"

Even after a few weeks Sharon still looked at me funny whenever I used terminology I was most familiar with. "She has powers, yes."

"And I'm just now finding out about her?"

"STATION has had her for the last two years."

One thing I have learned over the previous few weeks was that SHIELD loved acronyms. Maybe it's just governments in general, but I find that SHIELD really goes out of its way sometimes. STATION for instance – Scientific Training and Tactical Intelligence Operative Network. It's basically the first step after a think tank comes up with an interesting idea and STATION tries to make it work. Case in point: Sarah Garza.

I read over her general statistics while Sharon started in on the explanation.

"She originally started off at the Operations Academy and then switched over to Science and Technology."

"Why?"

"Bad fit. She wanted to be a field agent, but physically couldn't handle the pressure, and she clashed personality-wise with the instructors."

I nodded while she clicked to a split screen which showed two guys in suits.

"Dr. Abner Croit and his assistant Marcus Daniels; scientists. They were working on harnessing the electrical power of a substance known as Darkforce."

Daniels I recognized; one of the psychos currently locked up in the Fridge. "I remember Daniels was the one that went chasing after a cellist. Agent Coulson took him down, if I remember right."

"Correct. Before the accident that gave him his powers, SHIELD had their eye on the lab. Garza had the right qualifications to be placed inside. It was supposed to be a babysitting job. Once a week she'd pass on whatever progress they made and eventually we assumed the project would flop."

I could already see where this was going. "She was there that day… when the lab blew."

Sharon didn't bother acknowledging my conclusion. Instead, she clicked the remote and the screen split with a before and after image of Sarah Garza. Her security photo was the before image: a young woman, Hispanic heritage, long curly brown hair, and dark eyes. The after image was completely different. If they were separated I would never think they could be the same person. Her skin was stark white; I would guess stage makeup was involved if the picture had less resolution. The white of her eyes were bright red and her cornea had turned gray, or perhaps silver might be a better choice. That wasn't the most obvious change.

Her hair was bright orange, cut in a short flared bob.

"Tell me she colored her hair."

"Uh, no."

"Ouch."

"What didn't make it to your report on Daniels was that Garza was the cause of the explosion at the lab where it happened."

That got my attention. "She was a mole?"

Sharon shook her head. "No, whatever happened there happened to her. It changed her. She emits… energy, uncontrolled. If she gets the least out of sorts emotionally, everything within a hundred feet of her feels the fallout. It was an accident, but that energy caused the explosion that turned Daniels into whatever he is."

I was already categorizing her in my head and thinking of ways to take her out if need be, then I remembered what I was supposed to be doing there in the first place.

"Right. I'm guessing since STATION has her then they've found a way of controlling her power?"

Sharon smiled. "They have, but it's not exactly… well…."

Instead of telling me, she clicked her remote again.

"Is that…?"

"Iron Man armor? Sort of. It was based off Tony Stark's idea, but all the work was STATION."

It wasn't full coverage, only a breastplate, and gauntlets, but the device centered on her chest made it look like piecemeal Iron Man armor.

"It collects any energy she puts out and diverts it to batteries that she can expel though her gloves and the main emitter on her chest."

"So she's safe to be around now?"

"Yes."

I almost smiled. In fact, I was halfway there at the moment I realized there had to be a catch. It couldn't be this easy. Nothing ever is.

"Why isn't she here?"

Sharon set her remote on the desk and crossed her arms. "She doesn't want to be a field agent anymore."

"Ah."

"Garza just wants to go back to her computer. Apparently one bad experience was enough to sour her opinion of the job."

"One really bad experience," I noted.

"It's a valid reason, I know, but we could really use her."

I frowned at the way she said that. "She could be a valuable team member. We don't _use_ people on this project."

"That's not what I meant, Taylor."

Taking a sip of coffee, I walked around my desk and set the mug down. "SHIELD is a spy agency. Garza has just become a very valuable asset to be _used_. Whether or not you know it, that's what it means. It's what you were trained to do, and I get it. For now let's just attempt to change the way we speak about people that have powers and hopefully down the line we might one day believe they're something more than a new weapon to be deployed."

Sharon leaned against her desk and sighed. "I'm not your enemy. We have the same goals here."

"We have similar goals. That's not the same thing."

When she didn't say anything, I took a seat and started downloading Garza's file into my laptop.

"Sharon, I get what SHIELD is trying to do. There could come a time where there are genuine threats out there that will need a trained and talented response team to take the lead. I just want to make sure that we're doing it for the right reasons and not wind up being part of the problem."

"I've listened over the last few weeks," she said while approaching the chair in front of my desk and sitting down. "I know you had a rough time of it on your Earth. I can see a lot of the things the ones in power did wrong, but we aren't them. We aren't the PRT or the Protectorate or even Cauldron. You can't assume that we'll act like them. Some of this you'll have to take on faith for now, just like we're taking a lot about you on faith."

The stories I told her were mostly summaries or the reports I'd been submitting to Agent Hill. It was all in an attempt to show them what could be out there in terms of versatility of powers. Examples of mind control powers were submitted along with my summation of Master/Stranger protocols. Examples of brute abilities were submitted with my report on alternative ways in taking down someone that could shrug off high caliber ammunition.

In other words, Sharon had spent a lot of time just sitting there and listening. I'm sure it all made it into her reports to Hill on me. They never verbally spoke about it within range of my bugs, but I was fairly sure it happened regularly. Again, it was something I would expect, given the nature of my job. I didn't hold it against them, since I would do the exact same thing in their position.

They had given me a lot of leeway in terms of creating a team from virtually nothing. So, I concluded that I should reciprocate in turn.

"That's fair," I replied.

"So, I'll try to be understanding when you point out my occasional slip of the tongue, and you can understand when I make them. It's our actions that will speak for us in the meantime."

I sighed and closed my laptop. "Deal. So… where's Sarah Garza now?"

~O~

Off went the pants suit and on went the SHIELD uniform. The only time I got to do this was when we left Hill's field office on a trip to another SHIELD facility. Fewer questions were asked about me if I didn't look like a civilian that was far too young to hold the position that I did. Basically, I looked out of place all dressed up for the office. I felt out of place as well. In the form fitting outfit that any number of agents used while on the job, I could be any one of a thousand people fresh out of the academy and on assignment, even if my level access didn't match my age.

Before leaving my room I grabbed an apple for the road and didn't even make it to the hanger bay before being intercepted by a familiar face.

"Agent Coulson?"

"Valkyrie." He looked me up and down with a pleasant smile. "Uniform looks good on you."

I shrugged as I shook his hand. "It's just when I leave the office. I'm on my way out. Is there something I can do for you?"

"I'm commandeering your quinjet, Agent Carter, and you for the duration." He gestured down the hall and then looked to the side with an odd expression on his face. "That sounded wrong. The skies above Puente Antiguo are acting up again, the same as right before you arrived last month."

"Really? But I thought the Asgardians were supposed to use the site in Nevada when they come down."

"Exactly. The Director wants eyes on the ground in New Mexico. I've been assigned there and he wants you there just in case we have an incident."

I nodded as we were cleared through security and hit the doors to the hanger bay, so I finished the unsaid portion of his sentence. "In case it's someone that's not supposed to here."

"If you wouldn't mind."

This is what I liked the most about Phil. He was nice and actually asked for my help even though he could put it in much stronger words.

"No problem. The last thing we need is someone breaking the deal."

"I'm glad we're on the same page."

I almost stopped and went back for my costume, but if we were meeting up with any Asgardians then my armor would be better suited. Frankly, I was somewhat annoyed I still hadn't had a chance to use it. There never seemed to be a reason to anymore. That was one of the biggest differences between Earth Bet and this one more than any other. Weaver didn't need to make a daily, or even a weekly appearance. At this point I was going to add monthly, but I hadn't been on this Earth long enough to make it plural.

"So how have things been?" Phil asked when we reached the boarding ramp.

"You haven't been keeping track?" I said jokingly.

"Hardly; this thing with Stark has been taking up most of my time."

Right. Tony Stark was having meltdown issues at the moment. Senate hearings, attempts on his life in Monaco, stock prices taking a dive, a new CEO, and his latest fiasco, a drunken binge at his birthday party a few days back.

"Do I need to be on alert?"

The ramp started closing and Phil looked at me oddly. "You could take on Iron Man?"

"For a first meeting? Probably. I've studied all the footage I could get on him. In flight his armor needs air intake. I could block that easily enough with my bugs and ground him. Swarm him afterward and slip in hundreds of bugs through every nook and cranny that opens whenever he goes to shoot something at me. I'm sure some systems would be affected. While he's busy with that, I have an Asgardian sword that can cut through almost anything, and armor that can protect me from virtually anything he can throw at me in the meantime. He's a genius though, so if I can't take him down then the second time around might be a different story."

"Bugs," Phil said in a low voice before he smiled. "That might be a show worth seeing. And no, he's under house arrest at the moment, so we're good."

I went ahead and strapped in while he went to speak with Sharon and then joined me in the back, handing me a pad with a number of people already loaded up on the screen.

"Just to keep you in the loop if we wind up meeting them," he offered.

I nodded. "Short version?"

"Jane Foster, astrophysicist out of Culver University back east. Her and her intern, Darcy Lewis have been there for over a month studying the strange atmospheric goings-on since your arrival."

"Oh… sorry."

"Not a problem. Or it wouldn't be as long as this latest incident doesn't hit their radar, which is unlikely." He didn't seem the least bit put off by having to clean up my mess. "With the addition of Eric Selvig things get a little dicey."

I looked down at the pad. "He teaches theoretical astrophysicist at the same university. Friends? Colleagues?"

He nodded. "And mentor. With the two of them working together I wouldn't put it past them to figure this whole thing out."

"Really?" I raised my brows at that. "They'd conclude that Asgardians did it?"

"Specifically, no. Have you ever heard of an Einstein-Rosen Bridge?" When I shook my head in the negative he explained in layman's terms. "Think wormholes. Since your arrival, that theory has pretty much been made a proven fact by SHIELD scientists. Now think about what an astrophysicist, much less two, might do in order to publish a paper on this topic."

"Ugh."

He grinned. "Right."

Then a feeling of dread started welling up in my stomach. It was almost a comfort in a way, because adrenaline followed soon after.

"If it is Asgard doing this, then Heimdall will probably use the exact same site as last time."

Phil looked away, obviously pondering something. "Excuse me. I need to make a call."

**3.2 **

_STATION – Mesa, Arizona_

Even SHIELD has technical issues. It was almost gratifying to hear. Our quinjet was grounded for two hours for repairs before we were able to make it in the air. I almost expected to see Phil fidget or at the very least look annoyed, but the delay didn't faze him in the slightest. I think it had something to do with me giving him the idea about where the landing site might be, and the call he made afterward. So it came down to either waiting in one place or the other for something to happen.

What finally made an impact on his superhuman ability to avoid getting annoyed was me insisting on picking up Sarah Garza on the way to New Mexico.

"It's the perfect opportunity to bring her on board," I explained, "literally and figuratively speaking. She's at STATION, so it'll take thirty minutes tops."

Phil glanced up at the cockpit and then back at me. "Who is this person?"

"Garza is a potential team member that was burned on her last mission. She wants to ride a desk now, but she has an ability that could help us in a few areas."

Pulling up her file I handed it off to Phil.

"She's already a SHIELD agent – level three." His lips briefly turned down. "That helps, but if it is the Asgardians or someone related she won't be cleared for this incident."

I shrugged. "If she joins my team in the end, her clearance level will be jumping anyway, right?"

"This isn't the way we do things, Valkyrie."

Sharon stuck her head around her seat. "Agent Hill already approved her to the team if Taylor can talk her onboard. Since she's already an agent, she'll have provisional level five status."

I nodded in agreement. "And that's why this trip, this exposure, to what we'll be doing is necessary. She's needs to know that it's not all going to be industrial espionage or whatever she's used to. Sometimes it's about protecting the people that aren't equipped enough to protect themselves."

Sharon's input seemed enough to ease Phil's mind; mine just made him feel better about it. "Go ahead and make the stop at STATION. Call ahead and tell them I want her ready by the time we make it there. Refer them to Agent Hill if they need higher authority than mine."

~O~

The security guy that met us at the hanger when we landed didn't have good news.

"She says that she'll take the exit plan before she goes on assignment again."

Which was another way for saying she'll quit SHIELD which wasn't really feasible since she would most likely glow in the dark wherever she went without the suit that the agency would be able to provide her on the job.

"I'll talk to her," Phil offered.

While I wouldn't mind him doing it, because of his way with people, I thought it best to be done by me. "I'll be her team leader. It should be me."

He glanced my way and then gave me a nod. "I'd like to make it to New Mexico before dark."

With a grin I said, "No problem."

I was escorted to a plain building among a bunch of others which gave the impression that the place was a decommissioned Air Force base. We entered and I had my ID scanned and approved before hitting the elevator and dropping three floors.

The place was more clinical than Hill's facility. We passed lab after lab instead of office after office. Why she'd prefer a place like this instead of being out in the sun I wouldn't care to guess. We all have our phobias to bear.

Once we made it to the end of the hall, the security guy motioned to a pair of doors at the next juncture. "She's in the one on the right."

"Thanks. I'll take it from here."

Halfway down, once I was assured of a reasonable amount of privacy, I called on my valkyrie armor along with the spear. An impression needed to be made, one that would tell her she wasn't alone in the whole wacky world of super powered humans.

With an armor tipped finger I tapped on her door. It didn't even take a few seconds before it was swung open and a caustic remark was on Sarah Garza's lips, only to fall short when she saw who was standing there.

"I told you… oh crap."

Seeing her dark red eyes in person was entirely different than seeing them on the computer. There was a lot more expression in them, fear even. Two small lights on either side of her neck lit up and I could hear a quiet high pitched whine building from the chest plate she was wearing.

"I'm only here to talk, Sarah," I said as pleasantly as possible. "My codename is Valkyrie, but you can call me Taylor."

With that said I willed the spear away, which startled her once more. At least this time it was on a positive note.

"How did… where did…? You're powered like me!"

"I am." Gesturing to the room I asked, "May I come in?"

She blinked and opened the door further. "Uh, sure. I didn't think there were others. I mean, Doctor Lawrence said that the upper levels wanted to start a team, but he didn't say anything about more people like me."

"Sorry, it's SHIELD. You have to have the proper clearance to use the toilet around here. Then they'd probably have someone on the other end scanning, weighing, and declassifying what comes out just in case it mingles with the public sewers."

She stared at me for moment before making an awful face. "Eww."

I looked her over and nodded. "So, you're already dressed and ready to leave?"

"What? No. This is what I have to wear all the time. And I'm not going anyway."

It looked like a formfitting black body stocking, only thicker. With the chest plate and the gauntlets Sarah still looked underdressed. I had a bad feeling the scientists involved were all guys – geeky guys.

With a shake of my head I tried to reason with her. "This is a show and tell only trip. It's to show you what we do. You'll be sitting in a nice safe quinjet most of the time. No action; I promise."

She grimaced. "That's what they said about the lab."

"Well, I won't be asking you to participate in anything. If there's trouble then I'll take care of it."

"You?" Sarah checked out my armor. "Well, you're dressed for it. Are you really a valkyrie or is that just a name? I mean you have the winged helmet and all… and the spear."

I shrugged. "Can't tell you unless you're in the quinjet."

She threw an annoyed look at me. "And then it'll be too late and I'll be trapped again."

Obviously, the direct approach wasn't going to work, so I looked around her room and slid onto my next tactic. Slowly taking in a couple of movie posters I gave her time to relax a little before trying again.

"What is it you think I do, Sarah?"

She grumbled for a moment and then answered. "Ferry souls to Asgard?"

I tossed her an appreciative smile. "For SHIELD I mean."

That broke her concentration. I didn't exactly tell her she was wrong or that her joke could actually be the truth.

"Well, they said they wanted me for a team. I'm guessing it's to take on the harder missions: hostage rescue, military missions, or a _coup d'état_ or two."

I suppose that would be a decent guess given what she knew about the organization she worked for.

"I can't say they wouldn't _try_ to use us in that way, but no. We're not the only ones out there that are super-powered."

Sarah pursed her lips for a moment and then turned around to go sit at the desk; elbow set on her knee as she bent over and set her chin firmly on her upturned hand. She almost looked petulant if I didn't take into account that she was already an adult. Her height didn't help matters. If she broke five-two I'd eat my helmet.

"You were lucky in a way," I added. "You were already a part of SHIELD. Some people out there don't have a clue what to do, so they panic. I mean what would you do if SHIELD wasn't on site to help you out? Really, what would you do? I want to know."

She frowned. "Probably panic. Go to a hospital or wait for someone to help me… police or something."

I nodded sagely. "And when those people showed up scaring you, and you started killing them with your power totally by accident?"

"Run."

"Get chased down, probably shot, been a fugitive… all because there wasn't someone out there that could help – someone like you."

"Making me feel guilty isn't going to do any good."

I shook my head again and looked at the other poster hanging on the wall. "I'm not trying to guilt you into doing the job, Sarah. I'm telling you why SHIELD brought me onboard. I've been there."

She finally sat up. "You were on the run?"

"Eh, sort of," I replied. The truth was a story best left untold. "When I first got my powers I wanted to be a hero. I was fifteen at the time."

"A hero?" Sarah sounded the word out like it was something foreign.

I nodded. "It took me a while, but I made it. It isn't exactly like the stories you probably read as a kid, but I made a difference in people's lives, you know?"

She seemed confused. "You sound American. Why haven't I ever heard of you?"

"That's a different story, and I don't want to get off track." Turning around to face her I remembered back to some of the Protectorate advertising posters I'd seen of Legend. Assuming the correct pose, fists on my hips and legs spread a little wider than shoulder width apart, I smiled at her.

"What I do out there isn't like what Tony Stark does in his Iron Man armor. He's flashy, not to mention photogenic, and he has a company to run. I do it so lives won't be lost unnecessarily, and I do it for other people like me, that don't have someone to turn to that they can trust."

Sarah ducked her head and I fell out of the silly pose, approached and squatted down a couple of feet in front of her.

"I'm on my way to a possible threat to the people of a very small town in New Mexico. They're just average people going about their day, without a clue as to what's going to happen tonight." When she finally raised her eyes to mine I continued. "It may be nothing, but there's the possibility that it may well be something bad. All I want for you to do is sit in the quinjet and watch – nothing else. Watch me do my job. If you still want to return to a desk afterward then I'll talk to Agent Hill and we'll get things going in that direction."

"I don't want to fight," she whispered. "When I joined SHIELD I did, but not anymore."

With a shrug I smiled softly when I realized she was a bit too damaged for something rough. I'd have to wait and approach her in another year or so, after she'd had some time to acclimate. "Well, I could probably use a computer tech as well. I'm decent with them, but I definitely can't do some of the things I've see the others do."

My communicator beeped on my belt and I stood, reached down to activate it and said, "Valkyrie here."

"Thirty minutes are up." It was Phil.

"On my way, Agent Coulson."

Sarah's eyes lit up and she nearly jolted out of her chair as I clicked off. "Agent Coulson?"

I cocked my head. "You know him?"

Her mouth was working, but nothing was coming out. Finally she found the words she was looking for. "Phil Coulson? Oh my god… I'm coming. Give me a second."

Sarah jolted for her dresser and then changed her mind and backtracked to the closet as I watched on. The lights on her chest plate lit up again, but I don't think it was fear this time around. Huh. Who knew Phil Coulson had a fangirl?

All this time I wasted when I could have just come in and said, "Phil needs you on the job."

She would have squeed and been bouncing on her toes at the hanger bay waiting for our arrival.

A few seconds later and she had donned some knee boots that matched her armor and then ran to a makeup table to check her hair. She cringed, but touched it up with a few passes of a brush.

"Okay, I'm ready!"

I opened the door for her. "So, you know Phil?"

"Are you kidding? He's a legend at the Academy. I've studied all his declassified missions, especially the ones when he's teamed-up with Melinda May." Sarah came to a shuddering stop and looked up at me. "She's not here, is she?"

"Uh, no. Agent Carter is though."

She sucked in another breath. "Sharon Carter? Great-granddaughter of Peggy Carter? One of the founders of SHIELD? Holy crap!"

I really wish I knew what the heck she was talking about. "She's the co-leader of my team."

"Holy – holy crap," she whispered when she turned away from me. "Don't make an idiot out of yourself. Don't make an idiot out of yourself. Shit… I'm making an idiot out of myself."

Before we made the turn to the main hall I dispelled my armor and watched Sarah nearly jump out of her skin. "What…? How…?"

"I'm a valkyrie. I can do these sorts of things."

"A val… but that was just a joke."

"Not really."

The security guy gave me a nod and took the lead while I put a finger to my lips for Sarah to hold her questions until later. The entire trip to the top I watched as her chest plate blinked on and off. She had to be a terror to be around before they figured out how to regulate her powers. No wonder she was jittery. I doubted she has even seen the light of day until recently, overly white skin aside. Maybe I should have stocked up on sunscreen. We were going to the desert after all.

When we rounded the corner of the building and spotted the back of the quinjet I noticed the boarding ramp was down and Phil had one hand braced on one of the supports looking at us with a satisfied express.

"Oh my god. Oh my god," she whispered. "It's really him."

The whining was a constant thing at this point. I really didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Is your suit supposed to do that?"

Sarah's head flicked to me and then down to her chest plate. "Oh, uh yeah; it's safe."

Leaving the topic alone I just waited until I reached the ramp to say anything else. "Agent Coulson, Agent Sarah Garza."

"Pleasure," he said automatically.

Sarah looked like her throat tightened up; either that or she forgot how to speak properly. All that came out was a high pitch chirp before she slapped her armored hand over her mouth and nearly dashed into the quinjet. Phil looked to me for an explanation.

"She's a really big fan of yours. Take it easy on her."

"Wait… me?"

I nodded, keeping my voice low when I answered. "Apparently you and someone named Melinda May are really big at the Academy."

"Huh."

I hit the button to shut the ramp and called up front. "We're good to go, Sharon."

She showed a thumbs-up and I heard her calling for clearance while Phil and I took our seats. Sarah was already strapped in and was watching every single movement Phil made until I bumped her with my knee to break her out of the trance.

"So, have you thought about a codename?"

"What? Oh, uh, not really."

I nodded, trying to keep her attention diverted. "What is it that you do? I mean I know you store energy of some type in that chest plate."

"Um… it's called darkforce." She lifted her right gauntlet. "This one shoots blasts of energy, and the left one shields, sort of."

"Sort of? It only shields against certain things?"

She shrugged in a jittery way. "No, it pretty much works against anything. It absorbs anything fired at it. Physical objects too, like chairs, bricks, water."

Those sounded strangely specific, almost as if it was an experiment done to test the limits of her powers, or maybe those were accidents.

"Where does it go?"

She winced slightly. "That's the question. Nobody knows. I make a shield someone throws something at it, and then it's gone. There's no residue left, I'm not breaking it down and absorbing it, and it doesn't appear anywhere else that we know of. It's just… gone."

I believe Sarah had Phil's complete and undivided attention by this point.

He looked at her with a measured gaze. "My experience with darkforce is somewhat different."

She nodded. "I know. Daniels, right? I heard how you took him down. All the scientists were talking about how brilliant you were… are… I mean you still are… not that you…." She stopped abruptly and looked straight down. "Shut up, Sarah."

I already knew the story. Daniels could disrupt and absorb energy: stun guns, street lamps he was passing, or the electrical impulses in the human body to name a few. He was a remorseless killer after the accident. Sarah, on the other hand, just generated the stuff and kept her sanity, such that it is.

When she looked back up, it was if her ramblings were a thing of the distant past. "You said you'd tell me about the valkyrie thing if we were in the quinjet."

"Yeah," I nodded. "About that…."

_**3.3**_

_May 31, 2011, Puente Antiguo, New Mexico (north of Roswell) _

It was near sunset by the time we arrived in Roswell. Apparently, the locals get skittish when confronted with almost-state-of-the-art-aircraft. Everything is UFO themed in the surrounding hundred miles. So, visitors tend to think everything smaller than a commercial airliner is of alien origin. Even then, it's better to fly over during the daytime – flashing lights in the sky attract attention. That's what I was told anyway.

If only they knew that it wasn't little gray aliens, but big hulking Asgardian brutes, they might direct their eyes somewhere else.

Since I did promise Sarah she could stay in the quinjet, I offered her the option. She wouldn't be seeing much in the way of anything besides hanger crews going about their business. We wound up taking a SHIELD SUV to the original site of my visit outside of the desert town. Sarah tagged along. Where Phil went, she went.

Full dark had come upon us when we eventually arrived few hundred yards out from where I originally landed.

Four SUVs were waiting for us and a bald man with glasses and a business suit seemed to be in charge of everything. As we approached, I tagged everyone with my bugs so I could find out what my eyes couldn't in the darkness. Most were around and within the SUVs, but there were a couple of scouts on the north and south sides with binoculars, scanning the area.

"Agent Sitwell," Phil said upon approach. "This is my team, agents Carter, Garza and Hebert."

Thankfully, Phil informed me about my cover or else I might have asked when I became an official agent of SHIELD. While it wouldn't be out of the question to have a consultant on site, it was still a little early in the game for one to be there without cause. Sitwell nodded in our direction, obviously not noting us as anything other than hangers-on or extra hands for the time being.

"What's the situation?" Phil asked.

"Cloud cover has been building since nightfall, just in this area. How did you know it was going to be here?"

"Last minute intelligence; it's reliable. Any traffic?"

"Nothing since leaving the main road. This place is officially the middle of nowhere."

Phil turned to me and lowered his voice below the moderate wind gusts. "Any idea what time we can expect them?"

"You saw it in Nevada. When the light hits, they'll be here right after."

"That's not helpful."

"What can I say? I've only used the thing once."

He nodded. "Wait until after they show to see if you need to suit up. The less people that know about you the better."

"No problem. What about Sarah?"

"Everyone here already has clearance to know about her."

"Gotcha. I'll take her around back and think of something to…."

We were interrupted by a crack of lighting racing across the sky and then two others followed from different areas. It was a tad too unnatural looking to be anything else. Lightning just didn't behave like what I was seeing in the sky.

"They're coming!"

I sent the swarm I'd been collecting since our arrival out into the darkness, but it was slow going. The winds had picked up to a constant thirty to forty miles an hour in a very short span of time. Sarah looked over to me and I motioned to the SUV if she wanted, but she shook her head.

Sharon was less stressed and more excited as she blocked her face from the wind and the dust it was kicking up with a single hand. I'm sure she'd already read all the files on me and SHIELD's experience with the Asgardians, and here was her first chance to actually meet one – I hoped anyway. If the Bifrost was involved then odds were against it being one of the other realms. I had a grim passing thought that Earth might be a new place where Odin could send all the people that piss him off so we could watch them – sort of a prison planet. Hopefully, that was just my brain making more of thing than was already there.

More lightning streaked across the sky and I involuntarily ducked along with everyone else in the area, like that could actually help if it decided to strike anywhere around us.

"There!" someone yelled right when I saw a column of iridescent blue light appear from nowhere and slam onto the Earth… miles away.

"Dammit," I cursed.

It held for a good fifteen seconds and then winked out of existence. Phil looked over at me and I had nothing to do but shrug.

"I was close… sort of."

Closer than I realized.

Another column lanced out of the sky and hit the ground not two hundred yards away, followed seconds later by an explosion. I spun away, summoned my armor and jumped for Sarah and Sharon, tackling them to the ground moments before the entire area was showered with debris. Rocks, dirt, sand, multiple forms of once living desert plants pelted the area as everyone took cover.

I wasn't exactly the greatest protection being as thin as I was, but it was something.

Ten or fifteen seconds later the last of the debris had settled and I pushed up off the ground.

"Are you guys okay?"

Sarah spit dirt out of her mouth and brushed at her face. "I should have stayed in the truck."

Sharon didn't bother with a status update for me, instead falling straight into her training. "What was that?"

Dispelling my armor I pushed away and stood, giving Sarah a hand up. Sharon was already scrambling to her feet.

"I don't have a clue."

Phil was already barking out orders. "Teams one through three, find where the first one hit. Four, stay here and work relay. "Hebert and Carter, you're with me."

Sarah looked back and forth not knowing what to do. I waved her on. "Come on if you want."

Gathering my swarm, I sent it ahead to scout out the area while I looked up at the sky and the dissipating cloud cover. Hopefully that was the last of them for the night. It didn't take long at all to find what I was looking for, except it wasn't a person at all.

"Agent Coulson."

Phil stopped and turned to me.

"There's a crater up ahead and something at the center of it. It's not a person. You might want to…."

He cut me off. "We have reliable people on the other one. Tell me what you know."

We kept on moving while Sharon closed ranks with us.

"I think – I think it might be a hammer. It's definitely hammer shaped, like what Thor carried."

He thought on it for all of two seconds. "Mjölnir?"

We'd both evidently done our homework on the more popular Norse legends over the recent weeks.

"If that's what it is, then it could definitely cause this much damage. Though if it's Thor's hammer then where's Thor?"

Reaching into his suit coat, Phil pulled out a small radio. "This is Coulson. Begin operation Haircare."

I had to stop at that one. "Haircare?"

"I'm not the one that comes up with the names."

With a shrug I continued on. "There's nothing else around, except for a lot of dust."

Phil nodded and came to an abrupt stop at the edge of the crater. "Is it safe? Any radiation?"

None of my bugs were dead, well, except for the ones the hammer hit, but that really didn't mean much. A lot of bugs are a lot more resistant to the effect of radiation than humans.

"There _shouldn't_ be anything harmful. It's a method of travel, not a weapon."

He grimaced right after I mentioned the word 'shouldn't'. Then he called for someone to check the area for safety's sake. There wasn't much else for me to do except for twiddling my thumbs. I didn't like not knowing what was going on at the other site. While odds were that it was an Asgardian and most likely Thor, his hammer being here didn't settle my nerves in the slightest. In fact, it did the exact opposite. What exactly could separate Thor from his hammer and is it here on Earth?

"Maybe I should…." I made a swooping motion to the air with my hand. When he looked doubtful at my idea I added, "People are going to find out about me sooner or later."

Sharon nodded. "We've already prepared several press releases depending on the situation."

"Prepared for what?" Sarah asked.

"Me going public."

While it wasn't on the top of my to-do list, eventually it would be unavoidable. As Weaver I could blend into almost any crowd and do my job even without a costume, but Valkyrie was a little too flashy to conceal for long, much like the giant beams of blue light that keep crashing into the ground. Hence, the press releases.

Revealing Asgard was a different matter altogether.

One of the reasons we were as prepared as we were was that it was impossible to hide the Bifrost Bridge when it opened. We made sure the landing area was out in the middle of the desert to minimize the exposure, but eventually someone with the proper equipment is going to see something out of the ordinary. There was a reason Jane Foster was in Puente Antiguo.

"What's the Director have to say?" he asked Sharon.

"Take it one day at a time."

"Give me a minute."

With that, he walked away and pulled out his cell. "Sir – we found it."

After that he was too difficult to overhear. The wind was still blowing pretty well, and I didn't need to spy on him with my bugs to know who he was talking to. It's best not to get caught listening in on a conversation with Fury, at least not since I started working for him anyway.

"What is…?" Sarah asked as she mimicked my swooping motion.

"Fly over the other scene."

"You can fly?"

"Valkyrie." I pointed at myself. "Remember?"

"So, it's not a winged horse?"

"No – my armor."

Sharon grinned. "I've got to admit: I'm interested in seeing that myself."

"Phil flew with me when I first got here."

"He did?"

Sarah's eyes went wide. "He lets you call him Phil?"

"Well." I shrugged self-consciously when I realized what I said. "Not to his face."

"Valkyrie," Phil called out, holding up the radio. "They found the other landing site and there's nobody there."

"Dammit."

"There was AFID confetti at the scene," he said grimly.

I blinked and looked to Sharon. "What?"

"In this wind?" she said before cluing me in. "Anti-felon identification. A stun gun was used."

With a nod I summoned my armor. "So whoever just came down from Asgard might have just been kidnapped, and if they weren't then whoever tazed him or her might have had the situation reversed on them."

I spun the possible scenarios in my head. If the human won then they'd have someone superhuman under their control. If the superhuman won then the human would be in serious danger. That was keeping in mind that there was a human and an Asgardian with nobody else involved. There were too many variables involved and standing there guessing was just wasting time.

"Sorry, Agent Coulson, I have to find whoever it is right now. Sharon, you might want to call Hill and tell her to have the press release on hand."

Phil grabbed my wrist before I activated my wings. "At least try to stay under the radar. If you can't, we'll deal with it. Just make the attempt."

I nodded and the wing constructs popped out before I shot up into the sky and headed south. It didn't take long for me to see three SUVs with their lights on the runes the Bifrost left behind. There was a dirt road that was barely visible now that the clouds had finally cleared. I followed it to the only road in the area and that led to Puente Antiguo. Luckily enough, it was poorly traveled at night. In fact, there were only three cars. My bugs did the rest.

The economy car that was headed outbound only had one person, the driver. The minivan that was heading inbound had two people, one of which was a baby – highly doubtful it was that one. The third, which had just been passed by the minivan, looked like a horrible cross between a Hummer and a RV. Several people were inside, but it took me a few moments to hunt the person that was lying down in the back of the vehicle.

You'd think there'd be more useful bugs around during the evening. They had a pretty nasty ant infestation in a trashcan located in the back. Moving them around I could tell the person was definitely big. That was all I needed.

Diving down I timed it well enough to land with a hard thump on top of the very flat roof of the giant van-thing. It swerved and I almost lost my footing. I hadn't planned this far ahead. It wasn't like I could stand out in the middle of the road and hope they stopped, and I wasn't about to pull some action movie move and swing around and through the windshield. Those things were a lot harder than they looked. Thankfully, the decision was taken out of my hands when the driver slammed on the brakes.

Before I went flying, I jumped and my wings caught me well enough to arrest my forward motion.

"Darcy!" a female complained loudly.

"What?" the driver screamed back. "Something's on our roof, and at this point I'm thinking Pterodactyl. This night couldn't get any weirder."

I lost the conversation at that stage, but decided to take advantage of the moment. Clicking on my communicator I signaled Sharon.

"Go ahead," she responded almost immediately.

"Follow the main road into town. It's Foster's group."

The side door to the vehicle opened and I ducked and dropped to the other side, dispelling my armor when I hit the ground.

"There's nothing out here," a man called inside, presumably Eric Selvig.

That gave me the perfect opportunity to rap on the driver's side window and scare the bejesus out of Darcy Lewis.

"GAAAAH!" Thankfully, all she saw was a woman in a blue uniform. "Oh."

Once the window was rolled down I looked up at her. "License and registration."

"But, I wasn't speeding, Officer… wait a second. You're not a cop."

When Selvig rounded the vehicle and spotted me, his eyes went wide and I could swear he paled right in front of me. "Darcy, do what she says."

"Why am I even here?" she grumbled. "No amount of credit hours is worth this. Here."

She handed down her license and a slip of paper that I made a small show of looking at before returning them to her.

"I need everyone to step out of the vehicle. Leave any weapons you have inside."

"We don't have any weapons," she said while glaring at me.

"Really? No batons… maybe a _stun gun_."

"Oh… um. Right. I have one of those."

I spared a quick glance down the road and spotted two pair of lights, in the distance, heading in our direction at a high rate of speed. The only other mobile person had to be Foster, who was dropping down to the asphalt as I gestured to Selvig to move on.

"Is SHIELD here about the event?" he asked.

"No questions." Once I caught sight of everyone I gestured to the rear. "Assume the position at the rear of the vehicle, please."

"Eric…," Foster said, looking to her mentor for an explanation.

"She's SHIELD, Jane. Just do as she says."

"Who's SHIELD? What's SHIELD?"

One of the SUVs pulled in close to the back while the other cut to the side and crossed off any attempt to move the vehicle from the front. I glanced inside and nearly groaned at who I saw laid out unconscious on the back seats.

"A colleague of mine once got involved with SHIELD," Selvig explained to his two friends. "He was never seen again. Just to do what they say and hope for the best."

Tapping my communicator again, I waited until Sharon answered.

"It's Thor."

~O~

Why do they call those ammonia ampules smelling salts? I've always wondered; not really enough to bother looking it up, just in passing. Anyway. Thor didn't like me waving it under his nose very much.

"Raah! Begone!" he bellowed as he jerked up and swatted at my hand knocking the ampule across the vehicle's interior.

I left it. In the long run it would probably help with the smell; nacho cheese Doritos permeated the entire vehicle.

"You!" he accused me. "Where am I? What manner of…."

Sue me; I got tired of being yelled at. "You want to tell me why you're on Earth and why you threw your hammer away?"

He stood abruptly nearly colliding with the ceiling, but stopped himself short. "My hammer? Where is Mjölnir!"

"Would you please be quiet? There are civilians around here and your yelling is really getting on my nerves. Remember the agreement you have with SHIELD not to expose yourself when you come here?"

He wavered slightly and shook his head, sighing afterward. "My apologies. I am… out of sorts. I was attacked by a slight of a girl with a puny yet powerful weapon capable of felling even the mighty Thor with a single blow."

I nodded and rubbed at my temple. "It's called a stun gun… and really? A stun gun can take out an Asgardian? Color me severely disappointed."

While my opinion of him at the feasts was fairly low, I could appreciate that he was probably one of the most powerful warriors they had. When he starting referring to himself in the third person, my opinion of him dropped by an order of magnitude.

I watched as he raised his hand and his jaw firmed in concentration. A few moments passed and his face twisted, clearly agonized.

"Where is it? Where is Mjölnir? It does not come when I call."

Brushing off my pant legs I rose from my crouched position. "Relax. We found it about ten miles out. I'll take you there as soon as you tell me why you're here and not at the Nevada landing site."

He took one menacing step toward me and stared me down. "You'll take me there _now_."

Thor made a very imposing figure, and could most likely squash me like a grape, but I stood my ground. He was appearing more and more like a typical bully every second that I learned more about him. Granted, he could back up all of his claims of power and whatnot.

"You don't want to piss me off, Thor," I said through clenched teeth. "Now back up."

"Hello," Phil said from the doorway, stepping inside. "You used an unsecured landing site and possibly exposed yourself to a number of civilians. Would you like to explain this to me now or Director Fury later?"

Thor finally backed away and turned. I could swear he looked ashamed or something equally as alien to him.

"My father has banished me, son of Coul. I have been stripped of my accouterments, my weapon, and my rightful title as Prince of Asgard for my attack on the Jotuns." He swung back around to defend himself. "They dared enter Asgard to steal the Casket of Ancient Winters on the eve of my coronation. I was to be King!"

Phil raised his brows in mild surprise. "Wow. Tough break. So this Winter Casket. Is it a weapon?"

Thor jerked his head in the positive. "A powerful one, yes. It was protected by the Destroyer and the Casket still rests secure in our vaults."

This was sounding worse and worse as we went along.

"I'm guessing the Destroyer is a guard," I asked.

"It matters not, valkyrie. Why are you not in your armor? Are you ashamed of your position?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "My name is Taylor, and like I said before, we're in public where were _supposed_ to be keeping Asgard a secret, at least for the moment."

Phil glanced at me and waggled his finger between the two of us. "Is there something going on here I need to know about?"

I shrugged. "He doesn't like me for some reason, and I think he's an ass, but other than that, no."

"I have no patience for your dark witchcraft, Taylor of Midgard."

"Witchcraft?" Phil looked somewhat impressed. "Have you been holding out on us?"

I rolled my eyes. "He's talking about my bug control powers."

"Oh." Phil looked around at all the scientific equipment scattered everywhere before returning to the topic at hand. "Do you have a way to travel back to Asgard?"

Thor grimaced again. "Heimdall has refused to open the Bifrost, most assuredly on orders from my father."

"Hmm, then we might have a problem."

3.4

"What sort…," Thor swatted at a fly that was buzzing annoyingly at his ear. "What sort of problem?"

"An Asgardian on Earth, perhaps permanently," Phil said before leaning out the door to speak to one of the agents. "Have a team out here to pick all this equipment up. I want everything copied and sent off to Sci-Tech ASAP."

Thor shook his head and all but glared at me. "I am heir to the throne of Asgard. Father would not leave me to languish on such a backward realm as Midgard for long. This is but a temporary punishment."

I nodded. "Sort of like sticking a child in the corner for not obeying his parents. Yeah, I can see that."

"I am not a child!"

"Valkyrie," Phil diverted my attention. "Please don't annoy the thousand year old warrior prince."

He had a point. I backed off a step and folded my arms. Thor still seemed to take offense at the whole thing.

"You allow a mortal to call you by your profession, yet not me?"

I shrugged. "He's calling me by my _codename_. It's a sign of respect. You're just calling me valkyrie like I'm the one that's supposed to clean your boots at night before flopping down on your bed so you can…."

"Valkyrie," Phil repeated himself. "Would you update Agents Garza and Carter on what we've found? Coordinate with Agent Hill as to what she wants to do about our extended visitor."

I pursed my lips but acknowledged his order. The second I stepped out of the van-thing I heard Thor call out one last barb.

"My boots need no cleaning, sorceress, and I would sooner bed a Bilgesnipe!"

While grinding my teeth, I had to hold back from sending the entirety of the van-thing's ant collection straight up his overly clean boots and up his arrogant legs. Could legs be arrogant? His could. I swear it's like he had some phantom pheromone that just set me off every time I saw him.

"Bilgesnipe. You know; huge, scaly, big antlers. You don't have those?" Thor said within range of the bugs I left behind.

"Don't think so," Phil replied.

"They are repulsive, and they trample everything in their path."

Phil shifted. "You know, Valkyrie was the one that saved you. Those people were delivering you to a local area hospital. Once you woke up, you'd be lost and alone in a strange land. Considering your ravings, they probably would have loaded you up with enough thorazine to keep you placid and drooling on yourself until your delivery to the closest asylum. You see, Prince Thor, right now you're nothing but a myth from Earth's ancient past, and without your armor and hammer, how exactly do you prove that you're really the Thor of legend?"

There was a lengthy pause and I noticed Thor had shuffled to the side and sat down.

"My apologies, son of Coul. I've let my anger rule me once again."

"I'm not the one that you need to apologize to."

Thor let loose with an incomprehensible sound. "That _woman_ is infuriating… but it will be as you wish."

"I'm not your father. Do as you like. Just remember one thing: while you're here, SHIELD is responsible for you, and we don't hold to monarchies, so you won't get any special treatment because of who you are or who you used to be. Actually, that's more like three things, but the sentiment is the same."

"Understood." Thor took to his feet once more. "May I retrieve Mjölnir now?"

Once I was clear of the area, I started jogging along the road until I found an outcropping of rock large enough to hide me in the darkness, so I could summon my armor. With that done I shot up into the sky as fast as possible.

Phil stood up for me, and I didn't exactly know how to feel about that. I've gone so long without caring about what people really thought of me that I've become numb to much of their opinions, except when directly confronted by them. I could have taken note of Phil's example and talked Thor down, but I let him poke at my insecurities. Physical attributes aside, I could have been the bigger person, but I wasn't, and at the moment that really annoyed me.

It didn't take long for me to find Sharon and Sarah. A temporary camp was already being set up at the edge of the crater and within as well. There were agents already here that hadn't seen the show, so I had to land a decent distance away before hiking to the crater.

"There you are," Sharon said when I eventually showed up out of the darkness. "Everything's secure?"

I nodded and looked over to our SUV to see Sarah looking particularly bored. "Yeah, Thor's been banished from Asgard for starting a fight with one of the other realms. Well, not starting one, but retaliating apparently."

"Banished? Here? What are we supposed to do with him?"

With a shrug I relayed Phil's orders. "Agent Coulson wants Hill to figure it out."

That looked like it left a sour taste in her mouth. "It's our purview – super powered individuals."

I didn't exactly like where this conversation was going. "You're not suggesting that we bring him onto the team, are you?"

"A full blown Asgardian? I mean he's _Thor_."

"He's an ass and I seriously doubt he'd like being ordered around by a couple of 'puny mortal women'." I even threw up air quotes for emphasis. "He got tossed out of his home by his own father for disobeying orders. Can you imagine what he'd do here?"

"I didn't get the impression he was that much of a jerk. He was nice enough to everyone in Nevada."

"Maybe it's just me he doesn't like."

She purposefully didn't say anything for a few moments. "Well, you do come off as abrasive now and then."

Abrasive; I suppose that's one way of describing me. That wasn't something I could deny and still be truthful to myself.

"Hm, and I thought I was pretty restrained with him this time around." Before I got all maudlin, I dismissed the subject. "What do you think about Sarah?"

"Bipolar?"

"I don't think so."

She shrugged. "I haven't seen enough of her to make an informed decision."

"She's still dealing with the trauma from the lab explosion, so I don't know that putting her in the field would be such a good idea. Maybe a desk job with us until she can get back into the swing of things? She _is_ a highly rated computer tech."

"I can agree to that," Sharon relied. "It would give me more personal time to evaluate her skills."

With a nod I said, "I'll let her know."

I hadn't taken two steps away from Sharon before the wind picked up again quickly followed by rolling cloud cover much lower in the sky than before. "Crap. Not again."

Sarah looked around, clearly aware that things were getting weird once more. "Do I need to get into the SUV this time?"

Something seemed different. When the Bifrost shot it's blue beam of light, the weather seemed to be more violent. This time it just seemed to be a sudden spring storm. Considering what we had witnessed that night, I decided to expect the worst.

"Might not be a bad idea."

In fact, I decided to join her, and Sharon did too. Once she shut the final door and the wind was muffled enough, I looked around and spotted two SUVs on approach.

"Coulson's coming."

"You think it is Thor doing this?"

I shrugged. "I don't have a clue."

A sprinkle of rain started up and the wind died down to a moderate breeze, at least something that wasn't creating an annoying whistling noise. My bugs down in the crater started picking up some weird light that shouldn't be there beyond the pair of spots that SHIELD had set up.

"It's the hammer," I said. "Thor is approaching. I'm guessing they're linked."

We sat and waited until the SUVs came to a stop. That's when I decided to join them. I'm not really the waiting around type. I'd much rather have a good seat for the show. Slipping out, I slammed the door behind me and raced around to one side that didn't have much in the way of anyone around. Thor didn't bother waiting either. I doubted rain was much of a hindrance to someone like him. At least this time it wasn't a downpour, not enough to seriously impair my bugs.

He took a measure of the scene and then started down inside of the crater while Coulson watched on.

A crack of thunder sounded directly above us and a brief bolt of lightning lit up the sky for no more than a second. The air was charged with enough static electricity to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and give me a general creepy feeling of impending doom.

All the while I was trying to figure out why Odin took his son's weapon away only to toss it a few miles down the road. It seemed like a pointless gesture. Was Thor supposed to spend all his time down here looking for it, and we were just lucky enough to have found it this quickly? I mean it was the desert, and the hammer wasn't all that big. If he didn't see where it landed, one person might very well take months to hunt it down. That is if someone else hadn't run away with it in the meantime.

Thor circled the ground where it lay. The handle was almost at a forty-five degree angle, just waiting for him to pick it up. He looked determined, but moderately satisfied at the same time. I suppose I would be too if someone took away my favorite enemy-smashing tool and I just found it again.

The entire crater was lit up in an ethereal blue emanating from Mjölnir, and when Thor grasped the handle it surged once more. Another crack of thunder made me flinch as I watched on. Thor frown and reached down with his other hand, straining, pulling, adding an inarticulate frustrated yell to the effort, to no avail. Mjölnir stood firm on top of the now drenched earth, and Thor was on his knees, staring in disbelief and anguish at his failed attempt.

"Damn," I whispered to nobody.

That's when I noticed a presence approaching from the side. At first I discounted whoever it was as one of a couple dozen agents roaming around, catching the scene. However, visibly, nobody was there. This became even more apparent when the rain stopped.

"Heartbreaking, isn't it?"

My fist was already in the air to my left where nobody should have been, but I held it a half second before pulling back.

"Loki," I said in a harsh whisper considering the scene before us. "What are you doing here?"

He was dressed not in his royal finery or even in the casual garb he wore around the palace when going about mundane duties. It was a suit that could have come from any number of high end stores on Earth; green, of course. He looked… normal. I almost didn't know how to feel about that. I was so used to everyone coming down here in Asgardian armor and flouncing around as if they belonged. Here was someone I thought of as an inconsiderate elitist that took time out to actually think about how to fit in properly.

"I was there, you know, when Father banished him. He called on his father and his father's father to strip my brother bare of all his worldly possessions – those that he cares for the most in any case." A grim smile crossed his face. "I was there when Thor called our Father an old fool. Can you imagine? Any other Asgardian would have had his citizenship stripped and most likely be thrown in the dungeons for such insolence."

"Ah," I said. "You're here to gloat."

I hadn't discounted the invisible intruder still to my right and I continued probing Loki with my bugs, which seemed to have grown the ability to phase completely though a solid body. Obviously, it didn't take long for me to come to the proper conclusion.

"Not in the slightest, dear valkyrie. Thor is my brother. There is no other that loves him such as I." He gestured down in the crater where Thor was still kneeling, rejected by Mjölnir, completely broken. "However, I do recognize that his arrogance is what brought him here."

I nodded. "Of course you do. He was tossed out right before his coronation, right."

Loki blinked and then shook his head with a resigned smirk. "I have no designs for the throne. I have better things to do than watch over our realm like a beloved pet while the Allfather sleeps."

"Sleep?"

That made a whole lot of sense. I could almost see Odin talking to himself. "After a difficult day of smacking down my son I think I should go take a nap. Loki – handle things."

"The Odinsleep," he said as if I would understand. When he saw that I didn't, an explanation followed. "The King of Asgard, in this case my beloved father, is personally tied to the Nine Realms, but to Asgard most intimately. In simplest terms, he expends energy constantly in its defenses, its wards, and the power that is used in all of the enchantments. After my brother's coronation he was to sleep and reclaim his strength.

"Yet another result of my brother dashing off to face the Jotun hordes was that he was to be rescued by said father who overtaxed himself in the process. Odin lay within his chambers possibly never to wake again."

Shit. "I'm sorry."

The corner of his mouth ticked slightly in acknowledgement. "If only matters of import resulting from this mess could be dealt with so easily. In his stead, until his death, or until Thor redeems himself I am duty bound to take my father's place."

Double shit. "Uh…."

"Yes, how eloquent."

I was prepared to deal with Odin until the time came to step down, whenever that was. I was even prepared to deal with Thor, but in no way was I expecting Loki to ever take the crown, the same Loki that Brunnhilda intimidated on my behalf only a month ago.

"Which explains why you're here," I surmised.

"I have more important things to deal with than sitting on that throne looking wise and impacted. So, I find myself coming to you on the proverbial bended knee."

"Me?"

"Watch him," he turned his attention to his brother who was being pulled to his feet by two burly SHIELD agents. "Do not let him come to any harm."

This was the point where I stood there boggled. "He's Thor. It's not like I can make him do anything he doesn't want."

"No more. Father stripped him of his power and his immortality. He has no more strength than the average mortal of his size and health."

"Well, put it back!" There was no way I was going to be a babysitter to a thousand year old asshat.

Loki shook his head. "I cannot risk war with Jotunheim. The only reason they sit idle is because of my brother's punishment."

"Wait. You said he could redeem himself. Let's do that instead."

The newly appointed King of Asgard turned and walked behind me. "My mother, my father, and I have been trying to instill some measure of humility in my brother for hundreds of years. If it is as easy as you seem to think it would be, then by all means do so, but he cannot know. That would defeat the purpose of the punishment."

I walked with him, curiously enough in the direction of my invisible but not unknown intruder.

"He just has to be humble? I mean… how much humble?"

With a jutting if his chin in the direction of the crater he said, "The reason he could not lift his hammer is because he has not been found _worthy_ to wield Mjölnir and thus rule the Nine Realms. Another gift from my father: an enchantment. Once Thor is able to lift the hammer only then he may return to Asgard and not a moment before."

"This is so fucked up. I don't even know where to start."

"Here." I noticed the exact moment the invisible Loki and the fake merged together out of the corner of my eye, because he was suddenly holding out a very large axe type weapon. "I would not see my brother unarmed."

I blinked. "That's… a big axe."

"It is Jarnbjorn, the weapon Thor favored before Odin commissioned the hammer. He is most familiar with its use. See that it is given to him."

That's something I wasn't exactly understanding. "You're not going to talk to him?"

Loki shook his head. "I would only bring sad tidings. It would be better if you were the one presenting this to him. I know of the mutual animosity you hold for one another. Consider this a peace offering. Inform him of my best wishes and that I would consider it a favor paid in full if he would put aside his typical idiocy and act like a king. Now I must return to Asgard."

I took the axe and frowned at him as he disappeared from view. The three flies I'd tagged him with let me know his exact location, but I thought it best to keep that knowledge to myself, at least for the moment.

Babysitting Thor; I couldn't think of a worse person to do the job. This was definitely an upper management decision. I'm sure Hill could assign someone to him that wouldn't piss him off every fifteen seconds. Not to mention him pissing me off. Phil had a way with him. Besides, I was busy with other things, and if what Loki said was true then Thor no longer qualified as superhuman anymore.

Yeah; definitely not my area of expertise, and definitely not my responsibility. Except for the axe. Once that was done I was out of here.

_**3.5**_

I stood outside the ever expanding temporary structure SHIELD had erected at the crater. I was wet, the general area smelled like ozone and plastic, and I had a really big axe in my grasp. This wasn't one of my happier days on this new Earth. In fact this particular day was ranking lower and lower every passing minute.

"Tell me that's not another Asgardian relic that just landed," Phil asked with a very tired voice.

I looked over my shoulder at him. "Not exactly. I just had a visit from Loki."

His eyebrows lifted with interest. "Odin's blood brother?"

There were something like five different versions of the Norse myths, each one stranger than the first. There was even a comic book a couple of decades back if you could believe that; I couldn't. Thor was a frog in that one. He wielded Frogjolnir, the mighty frog hammer. Then there was a female Thor. I'm not even going to try to explain that one. It was hard keeping track of all them, but for the most part all the people from the oldest version were mostly present on Asgard. Their relationships were off though, much like Loki and Odin's.

"Uh, no. The mythology here got that part wrong. He's Thor's brother; son of Frigga and Odin."

The incoming headache was apparent on Phil's face. "Another one?"

"No." I shook my head and tried to think of a way to condense the story. "Short version: Odin is in a coma of sorts and Loki is the king until his dad wakes up. He stopped by to give me the heads-up and to drop this off, because he knew Thor wouldn't be able to lift the hammer."

Phil narrowed his eyes at me. "I really don't want to hear the long version, do I?"

"I'll write a report." I couldn't believe I just said that with a straight face.

He paused in thought for a moment before asking, "Is our agreement still in place?"

"As far as I know. He really didn't talk about anything other than Thor's banishment and how much he didn't want to be on the throne."

Phil looked to Jarnbjorn with skepticism. "Is giving a very depressed former prince a sharp weapon the best of moves?"

While I doubted Thor would cut his own head off, I also doubted he'd go on a rampage against people that hadn't done anything to him but help. He just didn't seem like the type. Then again, Phil was pretty insightful.

"I'll wait until later, but I do need to talk to him, relay a message."

"Do you think that's wise? You two haven't exactly gotten along since his arrival."

I just nodded and passed the axe to him. "I'll try not to antagonize him."

He hefted it and looked at the edge appreciatively. "It's heavy."

"And sharp. Be careful where you point the thing."

Leaving him to his play with Thor's axe I pushed aside the plastic sheeting that served as a temporary door and made my way inside. Two armed agents stood outside a room, but they didn't appear overly threatening upon my approach. My ID was scanned and approved before one of them opened the door for me.

Thor didn't even flinch. He was sitting on a metal chair, hunched over a table, staring at the surface as if he'd been poleaxed. A partially clean towel sat to the side and a pitcher of water was his only company.

Since he took offense at my manner of dress earlier, I went ahead and summoned my armor before taking a seat across from him.

"I'm sorry I was a bitch earlier."

That didn't get a reaction, but I suppose he had things more important on his mind.

"Loki stopped by."

That statement however did. He flicked his eyes up at me and it looked as if he was trying to figure out why I was telling him this.

"I take it you know what the Odinsleep is?"

A flicker of concern crossed his face. "My father recovers his strength through this method."

I nodded. "That's what Loki said. He also said that your father wasn't prepared for it this time, and that your mother is concerned about him waking up anytime soon."

Thor slid his eyes away from me and across the table, contemplating something.

"That leaves Loki sitting on the throne."

Thor grimaced and looked back at me. "Why is my brother not here to say this to me himself?"

I pressed my lips together to keep from snapping a smart-ass comment. "He said that he would bring only sad tidings. He just stopped by to check on you, drop off an axe, and ask me to watch out for you. He said to quit acting like an idiot – his words – and instead act like a king so he can go back to doing important Loki stuff that doesn't involve sitting on the throne."

He ground his teeth, flexing muscles along his jaw. I held up my hands defensively.

"I'm just relaying the message. He was actually concerned about you and not his typical self."

"Of course he was concerned. Loki is my brother." I sat there and kept quiet for a few moments while he shifted on his seat. "What of the axe?"

I shook my head. "He called it Jangborn…."

"Jarnbjorn," Thor said with acknowledgement. "He knew that I would not be able to wield Mjölnir; that I was found unworthy."

"Ah, you know about that."

He looked at me oddly. "My father laid an enchantment upon Mjölnir. The runes… 'Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.' He has taken away all that I am. Now I am mortal, unworthy, and another will take my rightful place."

I frowned at the implied message he just sent. "Everything you are is a hammer?"

Thor's eyes tightened as he glared at me. "Mjölnir is more than a simple war hammer, Taylor of Midgard. It is my token of power as Gungnir is my father's. With it I control the elements; the wind, the rain, the storm. I could lay waste to entire cities with but a mere gesture, crack open the ground beneath your feet with a single blow, call it to me from across the galaxy and it would come. Nothing would or could stop it save for the Allfather himself."

I nodded. "And it is wielded by a man."

He blew a frustrated breath. "You could not understand."

"Oh, I think I could understand a lot." Leaning back, I relaxed on my chair. "I know what it's like to have my power stolen from me. It was just temporary at the time, but I remember the feeling of helplessness like it was yesterday."

Reaching up I ran my fingers across my forehead where I remember Bonesaw taking her liberties.

"I just lay there, powerless, while my head was being cut open right here." I traced the line for him. "The villain was monologuing and there was nothing I could do but stall for time. I had to be saved in the end, but I still fought in the only way I knew how."

Thor grabbed the towel that was beside him on the table and wiped at his face, afterward whipping his rain soaked hair back. "Look around, mortal; there is no battle to win, no foe to be vanquished, nobody to come to my defense."

With a tight smile I stood. "That's where you would be mistaken. You're just searching in the wrong place. If you're looking for the person to beat into submission, try staring in a mirror. You are your own worst enemy at the moment."

Standing, I pushed the chair back in its place. "By the way; I'm here. So is SHIELD. You have…." I was about to say friends, but that was pushing things. He'd never believe and I'd be outright lying if I said it. "You have allies. It's up to you to ask for help. We won't force it on you."

~O~

The SHIELD scientists were putting in some serious overtime. For them, an event like this was like shotgunning several energy drinks one after the other. Weird stuff needed analyzing; especially the 0-8-4. That was their designation for an 'item of unknown origin'. While pretty much everyone in the crater knew that it was Asgardian, it still qualified until the moment they knew exactly what it was and how it was made. In my estimate Mjölnir would always be an unknown, because I doubted even Thor knew all the particulars that were involved in its creation and it was even more doubtful that Odin would be giving us any answers.

"Are you here for a try?" one of the techs asked me.

I glanced over at the brunette with the English accent who was setting a sample of something into a centrifuge at her station.

"Sorry?"

"The hammer. Word has gotten out about the whole 'only the worthy' can lift it. Wouldn't budge for me, and Fitz is about to have kittens," she said gleefully.

I looked over to the short guy she pointed out, crouched at the base of the additional pit they carved out in a fruitless attempt to lift it with a backhoe. He was furiously trying to chip away at the unexplained diamond hard dirt underneath.

"Uh…." I really didn't know what to say.

"Go on," she said with a shooing gesture. "Everyone's tried."

She leaned in and stage whispered. "Even Agent Coulson."

That would probably be my luck. I'd pick up the hammer and Thor would most likely have a coronary right on the spot.

"I don't think so."

She smiled questioningly at me with a tilt of her head. "You're not even the least little bit curious?"

Ignoring her urgings I approached the hammer and Fitz, the guy she pointed out, looked up at me.

"Oh, another one," he said with a thick Scottish accent. "Well, go on then, so I can get back to work."

I crouched next to it as it sat atop its perch. "No luck?"

"None. They're bringing the laser next to see if we can burn through this muck."

I shook my head. "You won't be able to; it's an enchantment."

He looked at me, obviously waiting for the punchline. "Aaaand?"

"A riddle, Agent Fitz. The answer to who'll be able to lift it lies with Odin and what he considers worthy traits in a person."

He glanced to the side, back to his fellow scientist. "Right then. Simmons, is this a joke? I have real work to do."

I looked back and caught Simmons in the middle of pointing at me, before she snatched her hand back and smiled innocently.

"Doh! You're her! The girl from Asgard!" He nearly fell from jumping up so fast. "I mean the uh… the _woman_ from Asgard, because you are… I have a million questions."

"Submit them to Agent Hill," I said hopefully quick enough to quash his enthusiasm.

"But... everything we could learn from such an advanced civilization. It's…."

"I was there for a couple of weeks, Agent Fitz, and I didn't spend any of that taking anything apart. I have very little idea on how anything works beyond anecdotal references."

"But you said we couldn't lift it because of an enchantment."

"Fitz," Simmons said when she approached. She gave me an apologetic smile. "Sorry, you'll have to understand our enthusiasm. This is a once in a lifetime chance to study a genuine alien artifact. Any information that you could relate to us would help immensely… even anecdotal"

I sighed and look at both of them before turning my attention back to the hammer. "I'll tell you want I know about it, but it's not much."

"Excellent!" Fitz said under his breath with a triumphant clenched fist about to pump in the air.

I looked it over noting the designs, or possibly a continuous series of Asgardian glyphs and runes. Then I recalled some of the things Brunnhilda told me about my own sword and all the personal weapons of all the warriors.

"The metal is called Uru. It's mined and forged on Nidavellir, the realm of the Dwarves."

Simmons interrupted me. "I'm sorry, did you say Dwarves?"

With a nod I said. "I know. It sounds weird. That's where the myths came from, actual dwarves. Short, long beards, like to dig stuff up."

Her mouth was comically open and then shut at the end of my explanation.

"Anyway, the heat required to melt or smelt, or whatever they do to form it is the equivalent to the center of a sun. They have special forges where they work it into shape. Then it gets passed onto the Asgardians where they mix in the technology. Don't ask, because I know nothing about any of it. After that they add the enchantments; that's the decorative work around the hammer. I'm pretty sure Odin did all the detail on this one."

Fitz looked as if he thought I made the whole thing up. "Are you telling me that the little scribbles on the hammer are what's making it so heavy?"

"Doubtful. Thor said there were runes on the side that explained why he couldn't lift it."

"It's blank," Fitz pressed. "Smooth as a baby's bottom."

"They're invisible right now."

He nodded. "Invisible runes. Right then. Thanks so much."

"Fitz," Simmons smacked him on the side, before turning to me. "Really, thank you. It may not be much, but it's more than we had three minutes ago."

I reached out for the handle and held my palm less than an inch away. There was something there, static, something otherworldly making me pause in thought. A moment later I knew, deep down, that I couldn't be worthy of much of anything where Odin was concerned. In some ways I'm sure we were similar, but in far too many I knew we weren't. No, I wouldn't make a fool of myself by trying. Besides, what would I do with a hammer that created storms and bashed earth? It would probably spend most of its time in my pocket dimension with my unused sword, not to mention my unused spear.

A collection of Asgardian weaponry wasn't what I needed.

When I turned away and started making my way up the temporary stairs they'd laid down I noticed Thor off to the side, finally out of the room set aside for him. His gaze followed me to the top where he waited to the side, measuring me or judging me, I couldn't tell which.

"All the others have tried."

It was strange that he would know that considering the room he was in didn't have a view of the crater.

"It's not my place, and I doubt I'm worthy."

"All the more reason you must attempt to lift Mjölnir. With my father in the Odinsleep it is a dangerous time for my realm. A majority of the city's defenses can only be activated by him alone. Without my presence I fear those less scrupulous would take advantage."

"Loki doesn't count?"

He pursed his lips and exhaled slowly. "My brother's talents lay in other areas. Asgard needs a warrior and I have been found lacking. You may not be."

I tried to figure out exactly what drives him to say was he does at times. It's a fruitless effort. He's an ass, but he's not stupid. I doubt Odin could raise a son over a thousand years and have him turn out like that. Loki was right. He simply lacked humility, and that was one of the most difficult lessons to teach someone. Using logic won't work, because they have to put someone else before their own self-interest – try teaching that to someone that's lived for a millennium. It was an impossible task.

"What are you asking me to do?"

He nodded in the direction of his hammer. "Attempt to lift Mjolnir. If you do, then return to Asgard and watch over it until my father wakes."

"And when I can't lift it what do I get? No thanks. I don't need the added humiliation of knowing Odin doesn't find me worthy."

"You seek to take advantage of this situation? Have you no honor?"

I pressed my lips together, annoyed. "I have plenty of honor. It's your arrogance that has led you to this point. In your own words _you_ have endangered Asgard. Fix it and go defend it yourself. I have duties here on Earth."

Thor turned his head away and focused on the hammer. "Would that I knew how."

With a sigh I reached up and rubbed at my forehead. "Maybe learn to put others before yourself? That's the opposite of arrogance, isn't it?"

"And how should I do this, Taylor of Midgard?"

I shook my head. "That's a good question. I haven't been overly humble for a very long time. Maybe we both could use a dose."

A grunt issued forth from him. "Agreed."

When I felt the conversation had run its course, I turned to leave, but Thor had one last question.

"Where is Jarnbjorn?"

"Agent Coulson has it. I'd suggest not looking so depressed if you want to get it from him. I think he's afraid that you might do something… rash."

"Nonsense," he protested. "I am a prince of As…."

Thor stopped himself once more remembering everything that was taken away from him. "A prince of nothing."

I smirked and opened the door. "And that's the attitude that will make him keep it from you. Try some calm reason."

With a nod I turned again and still couldn't make it out of the damn carter room.

"Would you help me?"

My hand froze on the doorknob and I swear I wanted nothing but to run back to Sharon and Sarah and get the hell out of New Mexico. However, here was someone in genuine need of help, and the entire Nine Realms was depending on him to pull his head out of his ass. If I denied him and walked away then I was no better and most likely much less of a person.

"You told me that I have allies among those of you here," he said. "Are you an ally, Taylor of Midgard, or were they just words spoken without true intent behind them."

I plastered on a nice fake smile and turned to him. "Why me? I'm curious."

He shrugged and looked away. "The core of my being is warning me away from you. You have been nothing but a thorn in my side since I first laid eyes upon you at the feast and Brunnhilda glared at me with anger in her eyes. She hasn't looked at me in that way for centuries."

Ah, everything was starting to make sense, finally. I made his old flame remember why she was annoyed with his ass, and he was in some sort of valkyrie doghouse where she was concerned.

"I didn't tell her to treat you that way."

A touch of melancholy made its way on his face. "Nobody commands Brunnhilda except for my father and even then I question the hold he has on her."

I nodded. "Then we're a lot alike. I follow the orders of people I respect."

"Then I ask of you once more. Will you help me, and if not me then the people of Asgard who might suffer in my absence?"

Releasing the doorknob I sighed. "I don't know if I can. We don't exactly get along."

"Perhaps that is a failing of mine. As I said, everything I am is telling me to avoid you. Every choice I have made recently has been in error. That should be reason enough to seek aid specifically from you."

I'm pretty sure I was just insulted, sort of. "Okay. First thing I suggest is seeing a SHIELD psychiatrist to see what they could recommend. Mental health isn't my forte. The people that hang around me are… I should say _weren't_ the most stable of individuals. That's changed recently, but I still wouldn't trust my views over theirs, at least not yet."

Thor looked uncertain. "Psychiatrist? What is this?"

"A healer of sorts."

"A mortal healer?"

"You're mortal now. Try not to insult yourself," I shot back. "I've seen some in my past and they helped me. You should try that first. You asked for my help and that's my first piece of advice. So, should I talk to Agent Coulson and see if he can set up an appointment?"


End file.
